In Your Eyes
by Sartha Anne Rose
Summary: Three years after Relena's supposed death, Heero is working with the Preventers to pass the time, more silent and stoic than ever before... Chapter 23 Updated
1. Found Again

Disclaimer: I don't own it! I swear! ...::grumbles:: Evilness...

Chapter 1

Three years... It had already been three years since he had lost her, but even now it had yet to register in his mind. These days he was more like a programmed robot than ever before- going to work, doing paperwork, cleaning up the mess that was the world, then coming home, having a makeshift dinner (if any at all), finishing any necessary duties, and sitting down on the spotless leather couch to stare at a dark room. He rarely slept. On good nights his mind would go blank and he would almost completely shut down, but on bad nights...

Well, it was sufficient to say that he had managed to scare the wits out of his companions both with his infinite alcohol tolerance and unnerving glares. By now, he had been dubbed by Duo to be "immune to anything with a buzz". Nights when he was alive enough to respond – which were just as rare as his sleeping habits – he simply credited the condition to his rapid metabolism. Of course, this did not stop the alcohol from affecting him in at least a small manner, once he had consumed enough. These were usually the times when his body simply fell asleep without much warning, allowing him only a light slumber until some insignificant sound woke him with a start. Of course that led him to reach for the gun he still kept dormant on the bedside table, which only made matters worse.

He had promised her, right before...

With an angry shake of his head, he stood from his office chair where he had been lost in his thoughts, the careful, stony mask already placed carefully over any and all expressions he might exhibit. He left the room wearing that impassable expression and started off down the hallway, receiving stares from every which way, and the occasion greeting.

Since the time she had slipped through his fingers, he had been more closed off than ever, speaking less than Trowa and bearing a lower tolerance level than Wufei. He had even somehow managed to get angry at Quatre at one point when the chipper blond had mentioned her name in simply the wrong context. Of course, all of these things occurred within _him_, so his reactions were not the same as that of a normal human. Instead, his gaze would turn so cold it could freeze mercury and he would leave the room in an all-too-calm manner. He was well aware that any and all persons within his general vicinity had long ago learned to stay out of his way, and those who were new found out quickly enough.

An eyebrow twitched ever so slightly as he once again realized he was thinking over the situation again: his life without her. Why did it always come back to her and that day?

"Hey, Buddy!" Duo. Always Duo.

"Hn."

"Nice to see you too! So, has Une told you about the new mission yet?" The braided boy was about ready to bounce off the walls, grinning from ear to ear like a child about to tell what he thought was a hysterical joke. When he did not respond, Duo took the liberty to continue, keeping an easy pace with the stoic man. "Infiltration and containment this time. Take 'em apart piece by piece and capture anyone that we can. Sounds like our kind of job, eh, Heero?" The former Deathscythe pilot was still grinning, blue eyes glittering with something more than excitement.

"Hn."

"I think so too!" There was a laugh and he found himself distinctly aware of the careless arm that was suddenly being tossed across his shoulders. Glancing over, he glared daggers at his chipper comrade, only to be blatantly ignored. Duo was perhaps the only one who could do either and get away with it.

They walked that way for a time before coming to a halt outside of Middie Une's office, where the arm dropped away like a lead weight. There, in the quiet of the hall, Duo had turned deathly serious, even those eyes losing their shine.

"You know if you're not up to it, you can leave it to the rest of us. I mean, today and all...-"

"It's fine." His voice was sharp when he finally spoke, but still decidedly monotonous, and with that he knocked on the office door and entered without permission, closing it behind him before the concerned pilot could follow him in to voice his complaints to their boss. That would not do. Not today.

"Ah, Heero, I see you're here. I'm sure Duo's already informed you about the job for today. You'll be leaving in an hour. The schematics and information should be on your desk by now, so review those before you go." Une started speaking even before she looked up at the silent boy, sitting at her desk while mulling over papers. Middie Une had never been one to beat around the bush, and he found that he had gained a silent respect for the former Oz soldier through her no-nonsense way of handling the Preventers. She was one of the few people who had never treated him as anything less than what he was- a soldier.

"Understood."

He turned to go then, reaching for the door handle. "Oh, and Heero," he glanced up, turning just enough to see her out of the corner of his eye, "it is okay to take a vacation once in awhile. We all grieve in our own ways." And then she was once again lost in paperwork, eyes glued to the table in concentration. He did not respond, but instead opened the door and slipped out once again, heading back down the hallway with an eager Duo at his heels.

* * *

They left before sunset, armed with guns and smoke bombs; Heero curled in the back of the large military van with the semi-automatic gun resting against his shoulder, eyes closed. The other pilots were close by: Wufei dutifully driving the van while Duo chatted up a storm with some of the younger, inexperienced soldiers. It had been some time since they had last seen Trowa, but the Heavyarms pilot was never far when they asked for his help. Quatre, on the other hand, made it more than habit to visit the Preventor Headquarters at least once a week for a "meeting" with Lady Une and the other former pilots.

_She laughed and glanced over her shoulder at him, waving sweetly before boarding the private jet, leaving behind the faintest smell of lilacs as she went. He wanted to go with her, but was held back by pressing work that had just come to the attention of the Preventers. And so he watched her take off passively, face stoic but eyes gentle as his Prussian orbs met her sky-blues through the window. In the farthest reaches of his mind, he realized he returned the wave for just a moment by raising his own hand in farewell. She would be back beside him in a few hours..._

It surprised Heero to think that they were already twenty-one. It had been almost four years since the Mariemeia incident, and the little girl was growing fast under the care of the stern Une. He was almost forced to smirk at the thought of the pair together under one roof, both consumed by the duty of honoring the memory of the late Treize Khushrenada.

Almost.

"..._was shot down the afternoon while passing over Russian airspace..." _

_He felt numb, staring into the void of the television without really seeing it. It wasn't true... _

"..._unconfirmed whether the Vice Foreign Minister was a passenger..."_

_He had seen her off. She had been safe, happy, smiling. She was fine, she was okay. It was simply a drastic mistake. _

Duo often returned to the L2 colony to visit the junkyard and, of course, Hilde. The two had grown closer still since the war had ended, and Duo (much to everyone's surprise) was constantly teased by Quatre about when he would propose to the dark-haired girl. It was inevitable, according the kind-hearted Sandrock pilot, and everyone within their group of comrades silently agreed with the boy. It would happen eventually.

Wufei was not much different from Heero, burying himself in his work and then relaxing to an almost disturbing degree once the day was over. Then again, his nights were often spent with Sally Po (though what actually occurred between the two was still a mystery, causing the older woman to laugh every time someone would try to pry). Wufei had never been so content as he was then, at least not in Heero's experience with his Chinese comrade, and this proved to be a relief to many members of the Preventer organization, including Duo- who more often than not received most of the frustration Wufei built up.

How ironic, that they were all so content now. That is, everyone buy himself and...

"..._How did this happen? It's not possible! We had radar and soldiers covering the entire area!" Quatre was in hysterics, tears running down his face as he unleashed his grief onto the unsuspecting soldiers before him. The youngest Winner rarely yelled, only adding to the guilt the surveillance crew felt for their failure._

"_Quatre..." Trowa was standing within a close proximity of the platinum-haired boy, features abnormally twisted ever so slightly with his own form of mourning. He placed a gentle hand on the shoulder of the shorter boy and shook his head, only causing the emotional pilot to break down further. _

"_This can't be real... Trowa..." And then his gaze shifted across the room, his expression that of shattered nerves, letting his eyes rest on the silent one that leaned against the wall almost passively. "Heero..." And then he was no longer against the wall or in the room. "Heero! Where are you going?"_

"_To find her." _

The truck lurched to a stop, interrupting him from his memories and thoughts as instinct overrode humanity. His mind was now solely focused on the mission, already reviewing the layout of the building in his head.

In truth, their job was simply to subdue the growing rebel organization that resided in the run-down building. Some years ago they had been a serious threat to the aspect of peace, but now they were simply a nameless group that was once again rising in power after a devastating wipeout during the war. It had been decided that they were too dangerous to allow them to regain their former power.

"Get ready." Heero stood as he spoke, checking his gun and other gear before hopping down from the truck and glancing out at the street- the tall, crumbling building stretching up before him. Unbeknownst to most people it had once been a shelter, its rundown walls acting only as a guise to what had actually once been a sophisticated facility. This facility was their objective- that and anyone in it. Capture and subdue.

They moved in silence and entered the building with little trouble, Duo following close by as they both led individual teams of soldiers into the hideout. Wufei was assigned to watch the perimeter, perched almost humorously on the top of the van they had arrived in, partially hidden from sight while his own men surrounded the building and searched out any unknown exits. This would be what was considered "routine" to the band of Preventers. At least, that was how it was planned out.

It wasn't until they reached the lower levels of the building that the enemy became aware of their infiltration, or at least it wasn't until that time that they chose to acknowledge it. The bullets started flying without warning, and they returned the fire with their own guns, ducking and dodging through the hallways as they attempted to disarm their opponents.

"Heero, man, it's been a year now... She's gone..." Duo stepped towards him with a hand outstretched, only to watch the arm shift carelessly away from his grip. 

"_That was never confirmed."_

"_You saw her body!" The Deathscythe pilot was clearly distraught by the situation, particularly by his emotionless behavior. _

"_I saw _a_ body."_

"_Heero..."_

Heero became a ghost-like blur of speed through the halls, taking out the rebel forces with frightening ease, his face stoic through it all, his body and appendages seeming to move without thought. He was simply a programmed soldier in those moments, doing what had been uploaded into his brain through intense, cruel training at a young age. But he didn't kill. No, never again...

"How's he doing?" 

"_Won't eat anything. Barely drinks. He's just... there..." He could hear the pity in the voice. God, he hated pity. Why couldn't they just leave him alone for once? _

"_I suppose this was bound to happen... Just stay with him, okay? I worry what he might do- or not do- if he's alone."_

"_Yeah, gotcha..."_

The thought hit him awkwardly and he involuntarily slowed down, just barely missing a bullet as its heat burned past his arm, leaving a rope-like welt. The shooter was downed in a heartbeat, rolling on the floor with a leg full of holes. Unfortunately, the rebel was not alone and Heero soon found himself on the run, followed by a horde of angry men with machine guns. He could hear other shots ringing through adjacent hallways and knew the other soldiers would be in the same situation. There was no help for the time being. He would be forced to deal with the soldiers through his own methods.

"_A job?" An eyebrow quirked up at the pair of boys standing before Commander Une. He had his eyes locked on her own, but it was Duo who was proposing the deal. "A job... Very well, I think we can manage that. Heero, you'll start promptly tomorrow morning." She eyed him with a slightly sad look. They all knew why he was there. But, even so, he noticed the look held no pity. If anything, it was simple understanding that was mirrored in those chestnut eyes. She was giving him a new start for her own reasons, not out of pity._

_No pity._

With that silent acknowledgement, the Perfect Soldier threw himself into the nearest crevasse he could find before wrenching open the door occupying the space and throwing himself inside, bullets following even as the heavy metal slammed shut and locked behind him.

Relaxing by just the slightest fraction, Heero noticed the distinct lack of sound echoing from the outer walls. Soundproof room. And then he heard the breathing, slow at first then rapid with fear.

"Please, not again..." The voice was a whisper- no, a whimper, but it was clear enough and the former Gundam pilot felt himself freeze, eyes going wide momentarily as he stared at the floor. The faint smell of lilacs reached his nose, and in that moment the spell was broken and he looked up almost frantically to see the other figure in the room, laying curled in the fetal position against the far wall, tangled golden locks of hair half-covering a face.

He took an unsteady step forward, his breath catching in his throat. His body was suddenly tense; every movement taking more effort than should have been necessary.

"Go AWAY!" If the commanding shout was not enough to convince him, the face was as the head lifted ever so slightly from beneath its shield of hair, and there he saw sky-blue eyes widen just as his had a moment ago. "...H..Hee... No, you're a dream. I'm hallucinating. You're not real!"

And suddenly he found his breath and his feet.

Three years to the day...

"Relena..." _"Relena."_


	2. Tentative Retrieval

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing! ::sob::

Notes to Reviewers:

**Purdy**- Thankee! Glad you enjoyed it! No slacking, I promise!

**Cynthia**- Hee-chan's definately had a hard time, but things will get very interesting very soon. Thanks for your support!

**Lost-Remembrance**- Sure thing!

**Ladybug**- ::cackles deviously::

**Tsubasa No Kami**- More cliffhangers to come!

**Sullimike23**- "Hell and back" is most definately one way to put it. .

* * *

Chapter 2

"Relena..." She sprang to her feet almost as soon as his lips moved, backing up against the wall until it became impossible for her to press any further backwards. She had gotten thinner, her face deathly pale compared to the warm, neutral tones she had possessed three years ago. Her eyes were wild with fear and distress, but even through the wave of conflicting emotion Heero found himself gazing into a serene breed of control. She was still very much herself, despite the way she was acting. He tested her name again within the heavy air, and this time that faint life in her eyes seemed to glimmer just a touch brighter.

"Is it really you?" It wasn't a question as much as a plea, and her voice was barely discernable even above the calm of the room. A single nod was his only reply. "Heero..." The name sounded foreign to both of them, but it spurred a flurry of movement as she stepped forward from her sanctuary, and for but a second he was convinced she was going to throw herself at him. But that was not her intention as the clean, sharp sound of a slap echoed through the too-silent chamber.

"_You didn't come for me_!"

Shock would not have been a strong enough word to describe Heero's reaction in that moment. Flabbergasted, perhaps, but certainly not shocked. Unprepared for the assault, his head had automatically snapped to the side, and that was the way he stood, watching her silently, stoically from the corner of his eyes. Her words resounded in his head, as loud as if she were yelling them again and again. _You didn't come for me! _There was no response he could give her, no reassurance. She was correct, and he could do nothing to deny that fact. He had failed to protect her on the day that it mattered the most. He had failed his mission; broken his promise to the one person who took it seriously. And this time he lacked a self-destruct mechanism.

But it seemed that his initial assumption was still correct, as she suddenly threw herself into his embrace, trembling as though she might collapse any moment. Needless to say, the young pilot was more than confused at the moment, secretly bombarded by everything from relief to pain to regret. Three years...

No sooner had he found her than the door suddenly burst open, reality once again invading his vision as noise and soldiers piled into the room, guns reared. Instinctively Heero turned towards them, pushing Relena behind him while bringing his gun up in defense. "Surrender NOW!" They were surrounded, the lost princess clinging to his arm. She was trembling even more than before, causing the pilot to wonder. Was that... fear? ...No, terror. Relena was terrified of these men as he had never seen or felt before. Relena rarely feared anyone after the war, much less a few gun-wielding maniacs. Then what...?

A smile overcame one of the faces of the soldiers- Heero quickly counted six- and he stepped towards the couple casually, lowering his gun ever so slightly. He was not looking at the former Gundam pilot. "I see you've found our little _doll_ here." His tone was anything but kind, and Relena tensed, her grip like iron on Heero's arm. The man took another step forward, reaching out a hand just as the missing girl cried out.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Heero reacted without a second thought, suddenly seeing red at hearing the pain and despair in her voice. He shot forward without warning, bringing the shoulder of the gun up and around to crack the first soldier in the jaw. He went sprawling, and the Wing pilot took the opportunity of confusion and outrage to spring at the others, taking out two more before he was once again halted by the threat of guns.

"Bastard..." The first man stood with a scowl, wiping blood from his mouth as he glared at the defiant boy before him. His gaze then shifted to Relena, and the sleazy grin returned. "For that, I'll just have to take it out on her, now won't I?" He started towards the girl, and Heero found himself watching in horror as she simply crumbled to the ground and curled up once again.

_Relena..._

That was all it took, and even he could not register what happened as his instincts took hold and he broke free of the soldiers. They were all on the floor before he, or anyone else, had time to register a thought, and the next moment he was staring down the barrel of his handgun at the foolish idiot who had dared suggest vulgarity towards Relena Peacecraft Darlian. The semiautomatic military-issued gun was long forgotten, and he barely heard the shot he fired, but knew instantly it was not fatal. His instincts screamed to make it so, but his subconscious knew better. Instead, it embedded itself nicely in the center of the soldier's ribs. That would be a sufficient amount of pain... for now...

He turned slowly to find Relena once again, and was relieved to see her standing there, watching him. Her arms were wrapped protectively around herself, and she looked as though she might faint any moment, but she was unharmed. At least in a sense of the word, she was.

He approached her wordlessly and they stood there for a time, simply sizing up the person before him/her. When he took her hand and turned to leave, he felt her start, only to relax again and follow him, her hand wrapping warmly in his. She still had impossibly small hands with long, elegant fingers, and the loss of weight did not help the matter.

By now most of the rebels had been detained or disabled, many of them still moaning on the floor from the nonfatal gunshot wounds they had been dealt. Heero ignored them, but Relena looked down at them with a mixture of pity and disgust. How long had they held her like that? He could not even begin to fathom what might have caused her to react the way she did to the soldiers. Relena was scared of no one.

"Heero?" He did not realize his grip on her hand had tightened over those thoughts, and was squeezing a bit too harshly now. Her already pale skin was turning even whiter beneath his hold and he quickly loosened his grip before glancing up at her. That was when he noticed the bruises.

Most were small, some faded to the point where they were no longer a concern, but others were fist-sized, if not larger- namely one that she wore right below her temple that stretched almost to her jaw- and were almost purple in color. He stopped and turned to face her in the hallway, looking her over thoroughly for the first time.

Besides the bruises, her hair was tangled and longer than it had been when she "died," her once-vibrant eyes faded from their cerulean color to something of a dirty muddle of blue. She wore an oversized uniform from the rebel faction and was absent of any jewelry or accessories of any sort. Her cheeks held little color except for the sickly shades the bruises provided, and her entire frame trembled with every breath, as though she were still afraid of some unseen force. Perhaps she was... But the most prominent feature was the exhaustion reflected in her eyes. Sleep was not an option for her. Not the type that the body required, and she had learned to live without that.

Mulling over the answers he found in her appearance, he swept her up without question or answer, the ghost of a smile gracing his lips as she began to protest before huffing indignantly and settling contentedly in his arms. Yes, she was still the Relena he had known, but simply a bit tarnished with age, asleep within moments.

And she was alive.

* * *

The drive back was more than interesting, Wufei staying behind with his men in order to take the rebels into custody. Relena was still sleeping even as Heero climbed in the passenger's seat of the military van, and by his guess she would continue to be so for at least a day, if not more. Duo was driving now, but the scene that had occurred but a scant hour ago still echoed in his mind.

_He had just stepped outside, happily pushing along a couple of soldiers towards the waiting backup vehicles. There had been more rebels than initially expected, so Wufei had called in for the extra transportation for the now-captured soldiers._

_Then Heero had emerged from the building, carrying someone in his arms, eyes stern and cold even as he approached the vans. Prepared to harass the stone-faced pilot about taking unsuspecting hostages, Duo had run over to his friend with a bright smile plastered on his face. His excitement had died as soon as he had seen Heero's "hostage."_

"_She's..."_

"_Sleeping. I found her during the attack. She's unharmed," he paused carefully, surveying his cargo, "...mostly." _

Wufei had said nothing when Heero had approached, the two understanding each other far better than most due to the silent respect they shared. Words were not necessary between the two pilots. Instead, the Chinese boy had turned away to retrieve a first aid kit, and had proceeded to wordlessly check the sleeping girl over for any serious injuries. There had been none fresh enough to require treatment. And so Heero had beckoned Duo to start the van in order to return to headquarters.

That was where they were headed now, and the braided boy was lost in his confusion. Relena Peacecraft was alive - albeit not incredibly well - and breathing. She was still with them, even after all this time.

_But how?_ The thought was not altogether unexpected in Duo's head, but he frowned anyways to himself. They had all seen her board the plane- had watched as she waved goodbye and Heero returned the gesture. She had taken off in that plane, and she had never come back down again. At least, not that they knew of. Until now.

"Duo."

"Ueh?!" The braided pilot jerked to attention as he heard his name, ripping his eyes from the road in order to glance over at the source. Heero was looking at him with that icy gaze, Relena still cradled in his arms like a little girl. He had refused to place the girl on a stretcher in the back, and was simply holding her in the seat, his arms around her acting as better safety than any seatbelt. Duo blinked, then smiled brightly at his companion- well, as brightly as he could, considering the situation. "What's up?"

"...Nothing..." Duo blinked, confused. Heero never began a thought without finishing it. But, the braided pilot did not push the subject, merely redirecting his gaze back to the road.

They were almost to the Preventer Headquarters now, where Lady Une and the other pilots would be waiting for them, for Relena. Une had been contacted almost immediately after the discovery, and there was no doubt that she would have already informed the other boys, if not Zechs Marquis as well. The former White Fang leader would not have been pleased if he found out about his sister's resurfacing through alternate sources, of that Duo was quite sure. So, he expected nothing less than the usual horde of ex-soldiers awaiting the return of their princess. Relena's name, no matter where or how it was mentioned, brought relief and security to all who heard it, even long after she her "death." Relena was Relena, and that would never change.

They sat in silence the rest of the way until he pulled the van up to the gates guarding the Preventer Headquarters. As expected, he easily spotted the waiting sea of faces perched outside the front doors of the building, anxious and concerned, if not plain out deadpan. What a strange group of people he knew...

He pulled in and shifted the van into park before sitting back with a sigh, closing his violet eyes momentarily. When he did open them again, he glanced over at his friend. Neither moved.

"It's your move, man. They're waiting for you. You make the call."

It was enough to spur the soldier into action as he opened the door and carefully extracted himself and his cargo from the inner compartment. Immediately, gasps could be heard throughout the group that awaited them, not to mention the happy sob emitted by an over-emotional Quatre. However, the moment was ruined as paramedics and friends alike bombarded the silent pilot, each trying their hand at helping lighten his load. Duo could only watch in amusement as the sword-like glare put a stop to all of that and the brown-haired boy brushed past everyone and into the sanctuary of the Preventer Headquarters.

He had finally brought her home.

* * *

After the initial shock of Relena's surfacing subsided, the exhausted princess had been left with a concerned Sally Po in order that she could perform a thorough exam of the girl. It had, unfortunately, been only through the toughest persuasion that Heero had agreed to leave the room. In other words, the four other Gundam pilots had downright threatened the obstinate boy so that Sally might do her job. He had, grudgingly, relinquished the sleeping girl after carefully weighing his options against his companions. Even Heero knew he could not win against all four pilots.

And so the day dragged on, each person returning to his or her own individual work. It was almost awkward: the situation. To find Relena again, only to have to occupy one's self with something more than the Foreign Minister in question. But, it was not as if none in the group had experienced such a feeling, and so each took the wait in stride with the normal workday.

It was not until late that afternoon that Sally Po finally called the pilots into her office, Lady Une already waiting with a blank expression. Immediately, as the pilots entered, they could sense the keen disturbance between the two women. Something was wrong.

Duo was the first to break the silence, never one to beat around the bush. "So what's up with the princess? She sick or something?" The two women exchanged glances before Une stepped forward uncertainly, eyes glued to the floor. Something was most definitely wrong.

"No, she's... healthy," she said, the word sounding strained even as she continued on. "You see, there's been a great deal of physical and em-"

She was never able to finish before the door burst open.

"Where is she?"

The room froze as Milliardo Peacecraft walked in through the door, blond hair blazing behind him as concern partially and rage washed out his normally calm expression.

Zechs had come to see his sister.

* * *

AN: Sorry if this chapter seems a bit choppy and conversationally-lacking. I'm getting back into the swing of writing again, not to mention lots of transition stuff between pieces of the story. . Next chapter will be chalk-full of good stuff, I promise.


	3. Truth Revealed

Disclaimer: Still not mine, lalalala....

Reviewer Comments:

**sally**- Thankee dearie! . Here's that updated chapter for you!

**SulliMike23**- Zechs likes his 'big brother mode'. But, yeah, it's definately something bad.

**Kristen Elizabeth**- Some of that is most definately explained in this chapter, and most of it you'll find in the next one, so hold tight. The drama will unfold yet.

**trekkiexb5**- ta-dah!

**Steph**- ::smile... ego boost:: I'm glad you enjoy it so much!

**Lost-Remembrance**- The cliffies have only just begun, my dear. ::cackle::

**Purdy**- Duo troubles, eh? Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?

**Lurker**- 5-page papers always suck, I know how you feel. I think the unoriginality reaches its low point in this chapter, but no worries. It's simply to set the stage. This started out as just one of those blatant ideas in my head, and I wanted to put it down somewhere. Things will pick up as I have fun with it. And yay for sisters!

**Anonymous**- ::eyebrow quirk:: (Yes, I CAN actually do it!) Edward Norton as Heero... Dude... And no crying! ;;

**Tsubasa no Kami**- ::pets::

**CrimsonDragon010**- I'll just say that, in the end, it was nothing the Relena couldn't deal with in her own way. And you'll see some good HxR. ::grin::

**tanni**- yeah, poor Une is verbally unsatisfied. We'll see more of her, no worries!

* * *

Chapter 3

Milliardo Peacecraft looked down at his sister with little expression, the girl sleeping peacefully within the room the Preventer's HQ had provided, golden hair still tangled and dirty as she lay there. He found himself feeling the sudden urge to embrace her, take her up and never let her go again, but a quick glance across the bed told him that would have been foolish, if not altogether suicidal.

Heero Yuy sat impassively there, only a few feet away, eyes locked on the face of Relena as though she might fade away any moment. Such a reaction was understandable, but Milliardo still found his nerves were buzzing over the presence of the boy. The faintest whisper in his mind told him Heero had no right to sit there and watch her after he had been the one to fail her from the start. But, no... that was not right, was it? They had all failed the blue-eyed princess in their own way. Heero's was simply a bit more prominent. And Milliardo knew that the former pilot had been solely blaming himself for the past three years.

Suddenly, Relena stirred and shifted uncomfortably in the bed, causing both men to rocket forward in one, fluid movement. Neither touched her, but both glared at the other, challenging each other to a duel of wills. In both their minds, Relena belonged to each man and him alone. She was his responsibility.

When neither yielded, they silently made an agreement and resettled themselves in their former places as the sleeping Relena did the same. Still, no words were passed between them.

It was not as though the two soldiers did not entrust the other with Relena, he mulled to himself. Both he and Heero believed strongly that there were few people who could protect her beside themselves, but neither trusted his_ own _selfwith the other. It was a matter of history. There was great respect there, burning between them, but the understanding they held for one another shattered the scale between trust and friendship. Too many lives lost during heated battles; too often at opposition with the other. They sat on the slimmest peak between comrades and enemies, and neither was willing to tip the scale. That was simple the fact of the matter.

Relena, though, was the one thing they both saw concretely. She was their light, for lack of any better terms by which to describe her, and so needed to be protected against all odds. And, grudgingly, he knew that Relena was perhaps one of the last things that tied Heero Yuy to the world of humans. The Perfect Soldier became something resembling imperfect when he was dealing with Relena. And somehow that had always been okay.

But not three years ago.

Three years ago perfection was the one thing that was required, and no one had lived up to that standard when it counted. Not even himself.

The door opened with a soft click, and Milliardo felt himself raise his head from the face of his sister, glaring dangerously in the direction of the doorway. In moments like these he was Zechs again, wearing a mask to hide everything but his most obvious intentions. Ironically, it almost seemed as though Milliardo Peacecraft _was_ the mask. It was a persona he wore to soften his demeanor and connect with the person his sister was, and even after her disappearance he had worn the guise of his former self. But he was still Zechs. He was always Zechs. And so it was with this specific personality that he directed his attention to something other that Relena.

Une. The stern woman had a strange expression on her face today, he had noticed it earlier when he had burst into her office and interrupted the meeting. Of course, the understanding Preventer had adjourned the gathering for the time being to allow Zechs access to the sleeping princess, but it was not without a silent protest from the persons present. Now, she was seeking one of them out, and the tall man could only furrow a brow at her. What was going on?

"I would like to see you two immediately, if you would kindly detach yourselves from the patient." The humor was dry, and not altogether meant to be funny, but Heero stood wordlessly and Zechs found himself following the boy from the room, both throwing glances back at the quiet sleeping form across the room. She looked so peaceful like that...

* * *

They entered her office quietly, none daring to speak. By now, Une knew both brother and soldier would have realized something was not quite right with their sleeping beauty. And, most certainly, something was not right. Not right at all...

It was peculiar, the nervousness she felt. It was uncommon for her to be anxious, even in the most dire of times. Middie Une had always prided herself in the amount of control she held over her life, but for some reason that was going all to pot in that moment. Well, perhaps not for _some_ reason. She knew better than most that there truly _was_ a reason, but even so it was an awkward transition. She hated anxiety.

She paused as she entered the rather spacious office. It was originally meant to be a conference hall, but that had changed when the Preventers were formed, and now the room was filled to the brim along the walls, but scantily anywhere else. Books lined crevasse after crevasse of bookcases, and there was a large window directly behind a tall redwood desk, but besides a few tables and chairs here and there, the room held nothing. Nothing sentimental. What did she have, after all? A few pictures here and there, perhaps, and many memories, but nothing she could grasp within her hand. No one she could visibly touch. Not anymore. Not ever again.

Shaking her head gently, she instinctively directed herself towards the only other piece of furniture that occupied the room: the minibar. She poured them all drinks without thinking; her mind only faintly registering that Heero was actually old enough now to legally consume the alcohol. Either way, it did not matter. She simply needed something to drink.

She turned with the drinks in hand, offering them to their respective owners before taking up her own and downing it in one gulp. To her amusement, she could see a single brow quirk on Milliardo's face. She supposed he had never seen her drink before. He would most likely be seeing more of that from everyone very soon.

She stared down at the empty glass in her hand carefully, then, deciding how to tell the two men the truth they needed to hear. Neither would like it. In fact, both would most likely go out and do something rash after she told them. But it would be worse the longer they stayed in the dark. Une knew that to be a truth in itself. And so, taking a steady breath, she began.

"I'm sure it's no mystery that I asked you both here to discuss Relena. I'm pleased to say that she is in a physically stable position, and none of her injuries are serious or threatening. A few broken ribs, bruises. In fact, she is in better condition than could be expected, considering the circumstances." Whether she was speaking of Relena's supposed death, the three years she had apparently been a prisoner, or the current dilemma, the two would never know. "She'll most likely wake later tonight, and I hope one of you will be there to greet her. I'm sure she'll appreciate it after all she's been through." She was outright dodging the matter now.

Milliardo remedied that. "But?"

They all tensed at the word, and Une's eyes shifted to take in the sight of both men. Milliardo was becoming irritated, having placed his untouched liquor aside. Heero, on the other hand, was wearing as straight a face as ever, the glass gripped carefully in his right hand. His glass, like hers, was empty.

Middie Une took another breath, realizing suddenly how hard the words were to get out of her mouth. How could she tell them? "But... there was some damage done that we couldn't repair as easily as broken bones. Sally and I alike believe that she will need a great deal of support from all her friends and family alike." She looked to each face in turn. Still dodging.

"So what is it?" Milliardo again. Did the man ever stop handing out questions?

"It's not an easy matter, you must understand-"

"Just tell us." This time, it was Heero who spoke, startling Une. Was that anger in his voice? She could see his grip on the glass tighten. Luckily, it was hard crystal.

There was an uncomfortable pause as she met the two fierce gazes. And then she simply did what she had to.

"Relena was raped."

The glass shattered without warning, both Une and Zechs jumping at the disorienting sound, shards embedding themselves within the palm of the Perfect Soldier without even drawing a flinch from the man. Instead, his hand was visibly trembling as the rest of the broken mess fell to the carpeted floor and his expression twisted into something sickly horrifying. ...Rage. Complete, unbridled rage. Involuntarily, both Une and Zechs stepped back away from the boy and there was another moment of silence, this one filled with stunned looks and concealed grief. And then the expression was gone and the monotonous mask was replaced.

Wordlessly, Heero stepped towards the door, reaching out towards the handle before Une's senses could return.

"Heero! Your hand..."

"Hn." It was the only response he gave as he stepped from the room and closed the door behind him, leaving the two to stare at the place where he had stood.

The rage was unmistakable, and furthermore terrifying. She had never seen Heero Yuy so angry. What would he do now? She could only shake her head and quietly move to begin picking up pieces of the broken glass. She was vaguely aware of Milliardo reaching down to help her, as her mind was lost to her thoughts.

He had shattered crystal with just the flinch of his hand...

* * *

She woke quietly to the silence and sterility of a dark hospital room, the door closed and the blinds pulled so that no light shown to illuminate the room. She was not sure what time it was, or how long she had slept, but she felt somehow refreshed for the first time in a long while. It seemed like forever and a day she had been able to sleep so soundly, there, wrapped in his arms...

She shivered at the thought. Even after all this time, he could still affect her with just a thought; a look; a touch. He was still amazing in her eyes, even if she had only seen him for a moment, and she realized that she still forgot how to breathe when he stepped into a room. What other man could steal the soul of the Vice Foreign Minister?

She shifted uncomfortably in her bed, her bruises aching and her muscles groaning from three years of violent misuse. It was only be sheer will that she had kept any type of muscle mass, ironically using techniques she had seen over the years to keep herself strong despite her surroundings. The teachings of five Gundam boys had come in handy during her dilemma, and that thought made her smile softly to herself as one foot eased itself down to the cold tile of the floor. She was unaffected by the temperature change after her share of freezing winters and a not-so-warm holding cell.

Prepared to go searching for one of her companions, she walked gracefully to the door and extended a hand out, when the voice in the room spoke. "You probably shouldn't. You're still weak."

She twirled around wildly, eyes searching the darkness. Heero? No... not Heero. Even now, she knew that this voice was different. Then, who...

She was pulled into a tight embrace without warning, the body tall and comforting against her own. She held her breath for only a second before realizing this and slowly lowering her defenses. "Brother..." Her voice was quiet as she leaned against Milliardo Peacecraft in an embrace. This would be the first time since the end of the war that he had hugged her.

"I came when they told me they found you. Unfortunately, Noin was forced to stay behind to carry out the end of a mission, but she says she'll be along as soon as the first chance becomes available. I'm so glad you're safe."

Safe. The word was so specific that she tensed involuntarily. Did he know? Did they all know? Did _Heero_ know? She shuttered at the thought. What would he think? Would he hate her, be disgusted with her? Say she was worthless and dirty and... She suddenly choked back a sob. No... Heero was not like _them_, not one of those men who knew nothing about honor or virtue. But what would his reaction be?

Relena Peacecraft could only sigh at the thought.

A moment later, Milliardo stepped back and looked down at her, eyes blazing through the darkness. He squeezed her shoulders softly as he did so, then released her and stepped towards the door. "You should get some more sleep, now. It's best to get as much as possible while you can. You know better than any of us how the press can be after hearing a story like this." He was about to leave when she inhaled sharply.

"...And Heero?" She was holding her breath again. Was he still there? Did he know, could she see him? Would her brother answer her question? _Oh God, please let him be here._

"In his room, I believe. Third floor, end of the hall. He usually keeps it unlocked." And with that Milliardo Peacecraft disappeared out the door, shutting it securely behind him. He was there...

For the first time in years, Relena smiled heartily to herself and opened the door with confidence, setting out to find her knight.

* * *

The truth was, he had not even felt the glass shatter in his hand. The shards did not hurt as they bit into his skin, and his eyes did not register the motion as the crystal slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. All he had felt was fury, and it was thick in his blood and his expression until he had realized and regained his façade. Men had hurt her in the worst way possible, and he had not been there to save her, could not be with her at the end of it all. She had experienced an entire world of physical and emotional abuse that he could not have begun to touch in his training with Operation: Meteor. And she had done it alone.

It was almost mechanical, the way in which he returned to his private quarters at the Preventer's HQ. His mind did not have to think as he searched out the first aid kit kept conveniently beneath her bed, reaching for the tweezers in order to pull the shards from his palm and fingers. He absently began plucked at the pieces, tearing them from his flesh one-by-one before chucking them into a nearby trashcan, ignoring the blood that was flowing. No, his mind was too far gone on _her_ to think about anything else. Relena...

The quiet knock on the door woke him from his daze, though, and he looked up with a glare directed at the door. He did not answer. Why was someone bothering him now?

Apparently, though, the person took his silence to be a confirmation and began to walk in. He was ready to bring whoever it was down a notch, especially if it was Duo trying to express sympathy again. But it was not Duo, and what sight befell him caused all the anger to drain from his mind.

Relena had come to see him.

* * *

AN: _Wow, so we finally know what's up with Relena! ...like half of you didn't see THAT one coming. Anyways, I'm not sure when I'll get the fourth and fifth chapters out, since I have an Exam to study for this weekend, along with a giant load of homework to go with it. I'll probably have one out on the weekend, and maybe another by tuesday night, but don't expect miracles. Hope you enjoyed Chapter 3! There's more to come!_


	4. Without You

Disclaimer: Are we not getting this idea that I DON'T OWN GUNDAM WING?! Grr...

General Reviewer Comments:

Thanks for everyone who commented! I always appreciate it and love to read everything you guys send out! I'm going to start to just reply to certain comments due to questions, etc. that have been raised, as I suddenly seem to have an interesting number of people reading this fic... ::feels loved:: So, here goes!

**trekkiexb5**- Actually, yes, it is very much on purpose. You'll see why in a later chapter, though I'm not sure when. If you want to try and figure it out, I hinted a little at what it was during Une's point of view in Chapter 3. Glad you picked up on it!

**Purdy**- I've actually heard a lot of speculation over the name, but my own problem is that I don't have my manga with me currently and probably won't have it until thanksgiving, so I can't consult it to remember about Une and Episode Zero, etc. I'm going to leave it as is for now, but after I check it out I might change it. Thanks for pointing that out!

**La La La Anime Fan**- I was never one for writing pregnant characters, and I think I'd give one of my friends a heart attack if I were any meaner to Relena for the moment, but thanks for the suggestion! You'll get your twists, no worries!

**To Everyone**- Hey, no matter HOW tough Zechs is, I think ever _he_ would be a little startled to see Heero shatter crystal single-handedly.

* * *

Chapter 4

Relena stood there quietly in the doorway, just looking at him, unaware of how the light from the hallway was silhouetting her body, outlining every curve. She had somehow managed to comb her fingers quickly through her hair, smoothing down the mess until it was manageable, but was itching for a brush and a shower. Unfortunately, any of that would have to wait for the time being. At least she smelled decent, her body retaining the faint scent of lilacs against even the strangest circumstances. Where that came from, she would never know, but it was a hand up in her mind. Hell, she was still a woman.

He looked awkward, hunched over at the edge of a bed with tweezers in one hand, his face just as blank as she ever remembered it to be. Then again, Heero had never been one for expression. One simply knew him or didn't. Luckily for her, she had been around him too many years before her abduction to not notice the faint whisper of surprise in his eyes, suppressed as soon as it surfaced. Some people would never change...

They said nothing to each other, but she began to step towards him, wobbling ever so slightly. Her brother had been right to suggest further sleep, her head feeling light after the long walk down the hallways of the confusing building. But Relena had always been a stubborn person, and would not rest until she had spoken with her rescuer.

His first reaction was to catch her, she knew, and she saw him rise ever so slightly, noticing in that moment the bleeding hand that he had been concealing on the other side of his lap. Her eyes widened at its condition- blood everywhere and small pieces of glass jutting out from the palm and digits. What had he done to himself now? Long ago Duo had made it into a joke that Heero could not go a day without getting blown up, shot, or broken in some way or another. Apparently today was shredded.

She steadied herself and took a deep breath before proceeding the rest of the way to reach his bed, settling wordlessly beside him and taking up his injured hand and the tweezers without explanation. He, in turn, did not protest. And then they both simply sat there as she began to gingerly pluck the shards from his skin, tossing them into the wastebasket where previous pieces had already been discarded. Neither questioned the other, and for the time being it seemed as though that moment could have belonged to those few, precious months after the war when they had finally begun to live. But this was not that time anymore, was it?

When she had finished clearing the hazardous debris from his hand, she fished around the first-aid kid before retrieving antiseptic wipes and clearing away the blood around the wound. His gaze and form did not waver the entire time, and Relena found herself wondering if the Heero Yuy even felt physical pain.

She wrapped the wound without having to think about it, watching through unseeing eyes as she pulled gauze around his palm, down and around, down and around... until there was no more to wrap and she was forced to tape it off instead. When she was finished, she felt her fingers trail over his subconsciously, before she altogether raised the injured hand and pressed it against her cheek gently, eyes closing. How she had missed his touch...

She was surprised when she suddenly felt his good hand on her forehead, brushing back bits of golden hair with his fingers. "You've got a slight fever." It was his way of responding to her touch, albeit an awkward one. But that was Heero for you. She was forced to smile, tears creeping into her eyes. Nothing ever changed between the two of them. The understanding they shared was overwhelming, even now. "You should be sleeping." Even monotonous, she could hear the concern in his voice. What was it about him that always brought them back together? War, peace, outstanding circumstances- none of it mattered in the end, because she always found herself back here, with him, just like this.

And that was the thought that shattered the peaceful façade she had managed to construct since he had found her. The events of three years seemed to suddenly suffocate her as she thought back on all that time when she had been deprived of his sheltering gaze. She had gone through hell and back, and she had taken it all in stride, even the worst parts, even the degrading parts, even the...

She choked back a sob and lowered her eyes to her lap, feeling his fingers drop away from her face. _Oh, God..._ "Heero... They..." It was mostly with anger that she thought about the situation- anger towards herself for being taken, anger towards the people who had taken her, anger because of what they had done, because of what she had _let_ them do. And she could only feel ashamed, as she had felt far too often in the time when she was a prisoner. They had defiled her, made her unclean and improper. And here she was, sitting next to Heero, silently asking him to continue where they had left off. She became disgusted with herself and involuntarily recoiled from him at the thought. How could he _touch_ her knowing what they had done to her? Filthy hands holding her down and doing what pleased while she silently cried. The memories were more than enough to make the tears fall as she could feel his gaze burning into her. It was too much.

"Don't look at me!"

* * *

Heero watched her as she tended to his hand, observing her closely, looking her up and down and searching every corner he knew. She had been strangely calm and quiet since she had entered, and he could only wonder why. But he said and did nothing to indicate that it was an issue. He understood that sometimes Relena simply needed to be the passive spectator, especially when she was upset or otherwise afflicted. And she was, most certainly, afflicted. Jaded almost. He could see it in her countenance, the way she worked mechanically and consciously all at once. Her fingers were like feathers across his skin as she worked on wrapping his injured hand.

He caught the emotions that flickered across her face as she worked, changing constantly: exasperation, concern, contentment, weariness, regret, thoughtfulness, and finally sadness.

On that last cue she pulled his hand to her cheek, her fingers resting lightly over his as she held it there. His hand tingled against her skin and he could feel the slightly unnatural flush of heat. Instinctively, he raised his other hand to feel her forehead and was mildly burned by the heat of her skin, feeling her start in surprise beneath his touch before settling again. "You've got a slight fever. You should be sleeping." It was not really a suggestion, but he was also not so adamant as to force her to follow his command- at least not at this precise moment.

And then suddenly her face had shattered much like the glass from earlier, tears filling her eyes in an instant. Dumbstruck, his fingers slipped from her forehead and cheek to return to his own lap. "Heero... They..." It was all she said before she suddenly jerked back, burned by some invisible force in her mind. He had never seen her wear such an expression as the one etched into her features at that moment, and so was at a loss by how to describe it. Then, just as suddenly as she had crumbled she curled up where she sat, making to cover her face desperately with her hands. "Don't look at me!"

He stared at her in bewilderment and anguish, his emotions all held carefully in check by way of expression, but raging behind those Prussian-blue eyes. What was going on? "Relena..." He spoke quietly and moved to touch her again, only to gain a flinching retreat. He paused, eyeing her, then tried again, slower this time. Luckily, he was able to peel her hands from her face, using both of his own to divert their grip, thumbs running circles over the skin simply out of instinct. He looked her over carefully, feeling his frown deepen. The bruises made her flushed face look sickly in the dim half-light of his quarters, and the tears that had been in her eyes were now streaked in layers across her cheeks. She was a wreck.

By now the distressed princess had calmed herself down, taking long, shuddering breathes to try and regain composure. Heero could no doubt guess at the source of her distress. He knew well enough the results that rape often achieved in women: disgust with themselves and the overwhelming feeling of uselessness, helplessness, and depression, if one needed a basic summary. Unfortunately, many situations had harried more drastic results in the past, but that was, hopefully, not the case here. Of course, when it came down to Relena, he could also trace the severe anger that lined her disgust and depression. She was far more than aware that an injustice had been committed towards her being, and she would not lie down and die. Never her. She was too strong.

He raised one hand to her face, using his index finger to brush away some of the tears from her cheeks. It was a habit by now, but it seemed to work towards his purpose as she looked up at him, the stress and anguish of her experiences reflected in that delicate cerulean. But he did not ask her about it, simply sat there with her. It was not his place to ask, and he furthermore found she would most likely tell him when she was ready.

After a time he stood and drew her up as well, concluding that rest would be the best course of action for the princess. He attempted to usher her towards the door, but was surprised when she refused to budge from her place. Looking back at her, she had an expression that said anything could cause her to cry again at the moment. "Please, let me stay..." His brow furrowed further than normal at her request. Stay? Why would she want to stay? But he was not about to push the issue.

"Only if you sleep."

She seemed surprised to hear the words, but dutifully nodded, lowering her eyes and head towards the ground. He helped her lay down on the bed, pulling the covers up around her before turning towards the door. No use in disturbing her with his presence.

"Stay..." It was barely a whisper, but he caught it and paused before grabbing the lone chair in the room and pulling it up beside the bed, sitting down so that he might watch her while she slept.

Whatever she asked, he would do...

* * *

Duo looked hard at the door in front of him, all traces of his usual smile gone. He had heard the little scene between the two lovers, had heard Relena's tears and Heero's voice as he spoke her name, and then the request and silent answer. The fragile balance between the two hit the braided pilot hard, and he instantly resented the bastards who had made the scene a reality. Neither Perfect Soldier nor Princess deserved these results, not when they had already gone through so much to reach this point of their lives.

Duo remembered well what had happened to Heero when he had thought that Relena was gone for good. While on the outside he had kept that stony expression, he had run himself into exhaustion looking for any traces that she was alive- how her captors had managed to evade the pilot's perceptive inspection, Duo did not think he would ever know.

That had only been the first year.

"_Heero, you can't keep doing this." He looked sadly at his friend, half-carrying Heero to the door of the small apartment. He had almost collapsed again, luckily caught this time by Duo's sudden appearance at the right moment. "She's gone, man. She wouldn't want you to burn yourself out with her memory."_

"_You're wrong." His response was a growl, his expression black with determination. _

"_Heero..."_

"_She's alive. I know she is." _

_He just sighed and balanced the soldier with one arm, using his copy of Heero's keys to open the door and allow them entrance. It would simply take time for his friend to realize that she was gone... _

Duo frowned to himself. In the end, it seemed that Heero had been correct- Relena had been alive all along. Sadly, that discovery had come far too late to stop the self-destructive path the soldier had put himself on for those three years, continuing on in the second year with flat-out depression that resulted in near-starvation and insomnia. It wasn't that Heero meant to do either, that the braided pilot knew well, it was simply that his mind no longer registered the need. He simply drifted in and out in that time period, shutting himself away from the world as he never had before. But, as always, none of this had been reflected on the outside.

_"How's he doing?" Hilde entered without knocking, looking between her lover and the ever-silent living statue perched on the couch across the room. Heero rarely moved from that spot these days, and both he and his girlfriend knew it well, having watched over him long enough. They had tried to spur him into action, suggesting activities to help him busy his day, or even outright annoying him, but he refused to respond with anything past his usual "Hn." What more could they do?_

"_Won't eat anything. Barely drinks. He's just... there..." Duo looked at his friend sadly, pulling Hilde against him so that he could rest his head on her shoulder. He sighed and she held him like a little child. _

"_I suppose this was bound to happen... Just stay with him, okay? I worry what he might do- or not do- if he's alone." Hilde had become more than good friends with Relena after the war had ended, and Duo knew that she felt obligated to watch over her deceased friend's love. After all, who else was there if not the people who knew him best? Well, best compared to the rest of the world, and the late Relena Darlian. _

_Duo could only nod in agreement. He'd watch over Heero until hell froze over, he knew that. He owed him far too much to let the Perfect Soldier waste away now. _

"_Yeah, gotcha..."_

The third year had been the time when everything had begun to look up. Over the previous year Duo and Hilde had together eased the grieving pilot into an easy routine: get up, eat, do some miscellaneous activity (usually strength training- a fact which often made Duo crack vicious jokes about what exactly he was building his strength for), eat again (if they were lucky), and then sleep. In the morning he would start the routine all over again. And then Duo had suggested Heero get a real job with the Preventers- one involving payment and his own personal quarters in the main building. Une had agreed with little object.

"_A job?" An eyebrow quirked up at him as he asked the question, and Duo found himself grinning in spite of himself. He had finally managed to drag Heero to Preventer HQ and had caused all hell to break loose by barging into Une's office without prior notification. She had been irritated, to say the least, but had listened to his proposal. It didn't take her long to decide. "A job... Very well, I think we can manage that. Heero, you'll start promptly tomorrow morning." Duo felt his grin widen: Success! Now he would be forced to survive, even if he didn't like it! Heero had been given a _mission_ by accepting a job as a Preventer. _

_The braided pilot's only response was to bow to the amused woman and half-skip out of the room, Heero following wordlessly. What a wonderful day this was!_

He sighed at the memories and leaned against the door just as it opened, stumbling in surprise right into Heero. Luckily, his friend was more sure-footed and steadied them both before they could cause a ruckus, all the while glaring daggers at Duo. Whoops, he hadn't meant for that to happen...

He smiled sheepishly and pulled apart from his comrade before stealing a look behind him. Relena was curled comfortably beneath the covers of Heero's bed, sleeping quietly, her face still slightly moist from her previous tears. He sighed in relief- at least she was getting the sleep she needed.

"What do you want?"

Heero's voice brought him back to reality and Duo suddenly remembered why he had come down to find the pilot.

"We've discovered information about the jackasses who stole the princess away." He was grinning again, and was more than pleased as Heero brushed past him with a "Hn" and a deep glare at nothing in particular, closing the door behind them. Duo simply followed his friend as he started for the elevator at the other end of the hallway, arms going behind his head as he walked.

Ah, yes, revenge would be sweet on these bastards.

* * *

AN: Ah, fourth chapter... A bit harder to write this one, as I'm trying to write Relena and Heero as best I can, given their circumstances. Sorry for the slow start, I'm finally getting a conclusion over everything that has been happening over those three years, and we'll start to get into Relena's experiences soon. Not sure how the rating might be affected. Ah, well. Off to study! Later!


	5. Gatherings

Disclaimer: No, GW is STILL not mine, but I swear to God if I don't get those legal rights soon I'm going to- ....ehhehehehe....

Reviewer Comments:

**DogDemonK9**- It's always a good thing to sleep in Heero's bed. hehe.

**Sakura Blossom-Cilla-85:P**- Down girl! They'll get theirs. ::cackle::

**Jonathan Tang**- Thank you for the advice. Heero would be glad to shoot one of them in the leg. ::more cackling::

**To Everyone**- First and foremost, I will state this plainly for all to see: SHE'S NOT GOING TO BE PREGNANT. End of story. In other notes, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I always appreciate it! And if you ever have questions about the story, go ahead and just send me and E-mail or IM. I'm always on. Thanks again, everyone!

* * *

Chapter 5

When Heero and Duo entered the conference room a sea of familiar faces greeted them. Everyone was there. _Everyone_. Even Dorothy Catalonia and Lucrezia Noin had found their individual perches around the room. All for Relena's sake.

The smiles were tentative if present at all- except for Duo, of course, who was grinning mischievously as he snaked his way over to where Hilde stood and all but glued himself to her side- but it was no hard task to sense the level of relief shared between the group of comrades and friends. Simply knowing that Relena was alive was enough to put everyone at ease, even if it were just in a matter of speaking as that relief was overlaid by the anger and sorrow of her situation. They all knew by now, of course, though some more likely through their own devices rather than by credible sources. Still, the truth was the same: Relena had been hurt, and someone had yet to pay for it.

But that was why they were there, and they wasted no time in getting down to the matter at hand.

The lights were switched off before anyone had time to comment- not that they would have- and a computerized projector was engaged, shining harshly dull rays of light streaming at the central wall of the room. Four faces were suddenly plastered on the wall.

"Oren Linnex, Lytol Schinzer, Merrik Daye, and Zephyr Cronis. These are our targets as of 0800 hours today." Lady Une had regressed into her role as a military colonel and the others followed suit. They were, after all, staging a war. "It was discovered by Intelligence that these are the four masterminds behind the rebel faction that was holding Relena captive, now known as Osiris, and reports from captured rebels confirm that these men dealt exclusively with the Vice Foreign Minister during her confinement."

"Why Osiris?" Hilde asked the question, her brow furrowed in distaste and confusion.

It was Dorothy who answered. "Osiris was what the Egyptians thought of as the god of the underworld. He was murdered by his own brother and cut into pieces, then put back together again by his wife and sister, Isis. An interesting choice, wouldn't you say?" The blond-haired girl smirked cynically, more to herself than anyone else. An interesting choice, indeed.

They could all hear Duo grumble from beside his girlfriend. "They took my title..." That drew a few good-natured grins from the room, as everyone knew Duo had personally claimed the role of Shinigami during the time when the war raged.

"Anyways, our conclusions are that these men are key in knowing what happened to Relena- where she's been, how she got there, how they managed to feign her death," Une's gaze flickered to Heero momentarily, the true thought on her mind obvious: how had they managed to elude a former Gundam Pilot? She continued on, "and what exactly happened during the time when she was missing."

"Well, we already know the answer to _that_ one," Dorothy offered with a sedate frown. In that moment, it could have been speculated that both Heero and Zechs were pinning the girl with dangerous glares, as she sighed and settled back in her chair, waving a hand to continue. Une waited another moment before doing so.

"Unfortunately, none of these men were in the building at the time of the raid, and so not only are they walking free, but they also are surely aware of our presence and intent by now. They will most undoubtedly retaliate. That is why it is our goal to strike first, before they are able to do damage." Her brow furrowed slightly as she silently regarded the pictures. With a sigh, she continued, a small remote in her hand snapping to the next slide of the projector.

This time, the focus of the slide was one of the four faces with basic physical statistics listed beside the headshot. The man looked pensive and agitated all at once, with thick brown hair tied neatly at his shoulder and brown-green eyes that simply reinforced his expression. It was the picture to which Une next directed her attention. "First up, Merrik Daye. Brown hair, hazel eyes, 5'10", 147 pounds, age: 32. English origin, birthplace: Earth. Probably the smallest bite of the sandwich. Tactical training, military experience during the war. Specializes in battle strategy and mechanics. It's been speculated that his main role in the group is to advise the other three men on the faction's course of action. He can often be found on the L3 Colony, according to prisoners, but his current location is unknown."

There was a click and the slide was replaced yet again, this time by an older, war-worn type of man with fierce black eyes. "Lytol Schinzer. Grey hair, dark brown eyes, 6'0", 183 pounds, age: 61. German in origin, birthplace: L2. A former general of Oz, retired seven years. Like Daye, he specializes in battle strategy and tactical training with a forte on espionage and stealth. This man could steal the underwear off your body if he wanted to." Une smiled ruefully, more to herself than anyone. She made it no secret that she had known the former general. She never had liked the old bat much. "Currently resides on L5 with his wife, Marie Schinzer. We have yet to discover his reasons for joining the rebels. Schinzer controls the rebels themselves and dictates missions to members. Most likely, he was well informed of our intentions to attack and warned the other three leaders as well. I've known Schinzer personally, and by my experience he is never taken by surprise. When we find him, it will be because he wishes it." She lowered her gaze a moment. How strange, to think of an old ally as an enemy, but she supposed that was the mentality that the Gundam Pilots had to face almost daily during the war. And so she continued.

"Oren Linnux. Second in command of Osiris." A thin, lanky man with wild dirty-blond hair and unusually crystalline-blue eyes captured the wall. The eyes were striking, to say the least. "Blond hair, 5'5"," (there was a small snicker on Duo's part at this point involving height), "130 pounds, age: 27. Legally blind. Russian in origin," (more snickering,) "birthplace: L4. Don't be deceived by the vision, he's thoroughly proficient at his job. Heavily trained in various forms of martial arts and self-defense, he is what could be considered the bodyguard of the group. His father was a politician in the years before Heero Yuy's assassination. Nothing goes on without his knowledge. Everyone and everything is passed through his personal inspection first and foremost, and if it doesn't check out, it doesn't happen, pass through, or survive." Une's face hardened as she listened to her own words, but it was Trowa who stated the thought in everyone's mind.

"So if we want to know what happened to Relena, we need Linnux..."

"Exactly."

There was a stark moment of silence as they all contemplated the fact presented to them. There was no question what their conclusions were, silently unanimous. Relena was top priority to the situation, and if they had to go through one man to ensure her safety and sanity, no one of the group would protest. Oren Linnux had suddenly become their primary target.

"Do we know his location?" It was Quatre who spoke next, bright blue eyes dulled with steadfast determination and sorrow. Vaguely, Une swore she saw anger there, lingering in his gaze, but when she blinked and look again the whisper of feeling was gone. Instead, she simply shook her head in response, resuming her role as Commander.

"No, unfortunately. He, like Daye, has disappeared from his most common stomping grounds. We suspect the men have a rendezvous point that they've kept secret and are now using. That, and there are no doubt other, smaller sections of Osiris on the various colonies, and perhaps even earth. These men are not limited to one location, and that is why it is of utmost importance that we capture them as soon at it is possible." Une's gaze swept the room, taking in the faces of her comrades. They all looked so alert, so resolute, watching her with fierce, understanding gazes that could shatter the souls of normal men. But no person in that room was normal, and most certainly neither was the girl they were prepared to avenge. And it could only strike Une at how odd it was to realize that each of them still looked the same at they had at that time, six years ago; three years ago. No one ever seemed to change, even if the boys had grown a bit taller and the girls a bit curvier. They were exactly as she had always remembered them.

And perhaps that was part of the problem for them all.

"What about Cronis?" Une's eyes snapped to one face in particular as she heard the question. Wufei. His eyes gleamed with something indescribable. Although Chang Wufei had never personally been close to Relena Peacecraft, it was well known that the Chinese pilot had contributed his share of protection towards the girl. Or rather, he had assisted the other Gundam pilots in protecting her. No one knew if he did this to protect the ideals of peace, or to protect the ideals of his friends- except for perhaps Sally Po and, in the slightest chance, Heero Yuy- but there was no question in his eyes that he was prepared to do it again.

Snapping from her trance, she swapped the pictures again with the press of her finger. "Zephyr Cronis. Commander of Osiris. He's our Head Honcho, but the problem is that the only people who have truly seen him in person are the other three men. There is no informational database that contains records on him, and the prisoners have only heard rumors. No two stories coincide with each other. Cronis is expected to be highly dangerous and highly intelligent. He obviously plans his moves carefully and knows exactly how and when to strike. Whether he is the same man who ran the faction during the war, we are unsure, but it is most likely that he has alternative motives than those expressed by the faction itself. He is no anarchist." The last sentence struck the room hard, and the already grim expressions grew darker.

"No records at all? Not even supposed aliases?" Duo seemed surprised at the notion. Une shook her head, causing the braided pilot to lean back with a groan. "Man, why do we always get the crazies with no pasts?" Numerous glares struck the jovial boy at the same time and he visibly flinched. "Geez, I wasn't pointin' any fingers."

"He's an enigma. I've had my best men working on both Intel and captives since the raid, but we've come up with nothing. Truthfully, it's as though the man doesn't exist." The former colonel shook her head again, this time in admitted defeat.

"He probably doesn't." All eyes snapped towards the long-haired soldier who had been silent up until that moment. Zechs looked to the people surrounding him and scowled at the thoughts running through his mind. "There's nothing to worry about when the persona you wear is not real. People will only know you by that name and face, and, when in such a position as Zephyr Cronis, will never dare to ask any more than what they know."

It was true, they all knew. Hell, it had worked for almost half the people in the room at one time or another. Aliases were no rare thing to the group of friends, and they each knew how to fade into nothingness. Yes, everything was so much simpler when you could just disappear from history.

"It doesn't matter." The group was startled out of its daze as Heero suddenly stood, eyes steely and dark. His fists were clenched at his sides, but his expression was as impassive and blank as ever. Turning away, the pilot headed towards the door of the conference room, stepping past the others without a glance.

"Yuy, we're not done here yet." Zechs' voice was a growl as he took a step after the retreating form of the blue-eyed boy. The reply was a nerve-shattering glare from over one shoulder, but came to a temporary halt, expecting the former prince to continue with his bristling reprimand.

Instead, Quatre tried his hand at the matter. "Heero, we should make a plan. There's no point in even trying to locate the enemy when we know nothing about them. It's best if we pool our resources and-"He was cut off as Heero started moving again, pointedly saying that he had heard enough without _saying_ anything.

He opened the door wordlessly, but stopped at the last moment, every pair of eyes glued to his back. He did not turn as he spoke. "Identification is not enough to achieve our goal. I'll be heading back to the Osiris base." And then he was gone, the door shutting softly behind him. They all stared, but no one moved to follow. He had given his answer: 'I refuse to be content.' Heero Yuy had found his own goal.

* * *

She woke much like she had just hours before: wrapped in darkness in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by an unfamiliar room. But, unlike at that time, she was content to simply lie there, surrounded by a flood of blankets and warmth. She knew exactly where she was, even if there were no visible signs to remind her. In fact, the sheer lack of personality in the room was almost enough to _convince_ her a thousand times over where she was. But, either way, it did not matter. She could smell him in everything around her- the faint mixture of gunpowder and mint with something uniquely his- therefore sight played no part in her contentment.

She pulled her knees to her chest beneath the protection of the bed covers, making the shell around her complete. It had been so long since she had felt the comfort and heat of a real bed that it was a foreign feeling- safe but dangerous. On the floor it had always been easier to hear and feel footsteps; less traumatic to her body than to be thrown from a high perch and risk further injury that what was forced on her at the time. It was also more of a deterrent to the men to see her lying there, wary and sharp even after so many beatings and so much abuse. And however much discomfort she felt, they at least felt a small portion of it when they...

Her gaze snapped to the doorway and she heard the quiet click and sweep of the opening door, pushing up partially onto one elbow so that the blanks just barely clung to her shoulders, her nest of hair still managing to look beautiful through it's tangles. She already knew who it was.

"You should be sleeping." The command came like clockwork, his gaze gliding over her form like liquid metal. Prussian met cerulean and she found herself frowning. Did no one understand how hard it was for her to sleep? Did they not see that she had spent three years living without the thought of sleep, always poised and read for the attack? Could they not see it? But, no, that was not it. She knew the truth in those eyes, could see it ringing clearly for her alone. He knew perfectly well how she felt; knew exactly what it felt like to constantly be aware, alive, _hunted_. And that was the perfect word for it. Whether pilot or prisoner, it was that knowledge that one was being hunted that kept a person striving to stay forever awake. It was that want to never be taken by surprise, at least not long enough for it to matter. It was primal, instinctual, and suddenly Relena knew just by looking at him that she now knew why Heero Yuy could never stay in one place for too long. Survival.

"I can't sleep anymore. I feel like a lump of flesh, sitting here." The frown deepened as her thoughts began to double on top of each other, reminding her of the days that had gone by. "I never again want to wait for something to happen." Her words were edged with a mixture between pain and anger, her eyes darting quickly to the ground as tears of outrages filled them. He would know what she meant, but she still did not know why so was so eager to say such things to _him_, of all people. Why did she always say such things around him?

_Because at the end of the day, it all comes down to Heero and I._

She brought her eyes up slightly so that she would be able to see him from across the room, but was surprised to find him standing beside her suddenly, towering over her with that stoic expression. Her head snapped up to meet his gaze out of habit and she felt dazed as she watched him. When had he walked over?

"I... I'm sorry I hit you before." She felt her lips move, heard the words, even felt her hand tingle at the memory of flesh striking flesh. She was not sure what she was saying at that moment, but found it would be most wise to simply let to brain say what it needed to. She had hit him, hadn't she? "I was looking for someone to blame, and when I saw you standing there, looking at me..." she dropped off and simply looked at him. He had grown so much, this boy she knew. But, no, that was incorrect, wasn't it? Heero Yuy was long past being a boy. He was very much a man, and her eyes easily told her this was correct as she took in the sight of him. He had filled out almost uniformly throughout his body, looking even more powerful and foreboding to the unknowing onlooker. By her guess, he had also grown a great deal since she was gone, most likely a good handful of inches taller than her now. But he still looked wild and cold as he stood there, those deep Prussian orbs the only feature capable of betraying his feelings. And only she saw it.

"You weren't wrong." His words were deep, and strangely full of regret through what others mistook as monotone. Wrong? Wasn't she, though?

"Bu-"

"I failed you." The words hit her like a brick and she felt her breath catch in her throat. Failed her? No, that was not right! "I told you I would protect you and I failed. For three years." He was talking more to himself than to her and Relena found herself melting away in his words. How could he think such a thing? She tried to speak, to tell him that he was mistaken, but her voice came out as a strangled gasp of air. "I didn't come for you..."

With his last admission the wind in her lungs rushed outwards, spilling her words along the way and she tried to spring from the bed, the blankets twisting around her legs as she gazed up at him, wide-eyed. "You're wrong!"

His eyes flickered momentarily of puzzlement before the emotion was drowned in that sea of cobalt. She was all but at war with the blankets now as she struggled to reach him, all the while her harsh breathing continuing to spew mysterious words from his lips.

"All that time, all those years, every day I felt like I was suffocating. I thought I'd die any day and that it was inevitable. I considered suicide every moment one of those bastards was inside me!" She was growing more distressed and angry with each passing moment, one hand moving absently to disentangle herself while the other held her upright on the bed. "But, Heero!" His eyes were like a wall around her, protecting her with that fierce gaze as he listened intently to every word, especially his name. "Every time I thought that way, every time I despaired and wanted to just disappear... I thought of you. I remembered you. I knew you'd come for me, no matter how long or how far." She took a deep breath as her legs finally slid free and she stood, the sorrow in her eyes and voice tangible as she instinctively reached for him.

"You kept me alive..."

His eyes went wide at her words and she was suddenly all too aware of the tremor that passed through his body, no matter how small or controlled. All memories were washed away as she was overwhelmed by her own sense of protection for him. Without a thought, the princess reached for her soldier and drew him close to her, cradling his head against her shoulder as he bent slightly and wrapped his arms carefully around her small form.

And that was how they stood for as long as the moment could last.

* * *

AN: Yeah, a little OOC at the end of the chapter, but I wanted to convey something a bit stronger than normal. Plus, she's been abused for the past three years, and he's been blaming himself for that during that entire time, so I think it's a little justified, ne? Either way, for all you hopefuls, don't let those hopes get too high. They won't be breaking down in each other's arms any time soon. Heero's still Heero and Relena is a little bit rougher around the edges now. No worries, though, I promise to do my best to stay true to them.

Oh, and I'm really sorry about the delay for the chapter. I've been just swamped with schoolwork this entire week, and I really didn't have the time or energy to spit out a chapter as quick as I usually do. I also can't promise when I'll get Chapters 6 and 7 out since I'm going to have another one of those weeks coming up again. I'll do my best though. Thanks for all your support and your patience! It means a lot!

-Sar


	6. Interlude

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own GW or any of its charries. Everything else, MINE.

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Purdy-** ::falls over:: Yeah, I am a bit of a brat that way, aren't I? Thankee, though, for the vote of confidence. I'm glad I could give amusement to your day!

**tiff**- I don't understand it either. It's a disgusting act about control, and I truthfully just don't understand what could make a person do such a thing to someone else, guy or girl. I'm glad you like the story, though. Thank you for the review.

**SonicBloom**- Hm... Well, I'll see from I can do then. Don't worry, I won't leave everyone hanging. Then again, I'm not sure how long this is going to turn out to be... Interesting...

**La La La Anime Fan**- Bah, no worries. People just get a little jumpy. All taken care of. And, you're right, that is a good song for that scene. Thank you for showing me that.

**Sakura Blossom-Cillia-85:P**- O.o

**Mikairi**- Thank you SO much. That means a lot that you got so much out of the story. That's always my goal as author to try and construct something fantastically real. Yay! I'm all happy now! Thanks again!

**To Everyone**- Thanks for the reviews guys! Have fun with chapter 6! I know I did!

* * *

Chapter 6

"I wonder if it is wise, to leave them both alone. They've already had three years to be alone. Miss Relena has been so badly mistreated, and I can only feel guilty for having yet to see her since her arrival." Quatre Raberba Winner spoke quietly as he walked down the hallway, Dorothy Catalonia trailing at his side with one of those deviously thoughtful expressions painted across pale skin. Out of everyone Quatre knew, Dorothy was the only one who could still hold an objective view about seriously personal situations.

In response to both his words and his thoughts, the tall girl snorted and threw a glance his way. "Miss Relena is strong. Neither she nor Heero Yuy regard their current condition as 'being alone.' I think we all forget sometimes that what is standard for the rest of the world shifts dramatically for our little," she paused, searching for the right word, "...posse." A familiar smile crept onto those thin lips, and he knew she had found the title she was looking for. Quatre could not help but smile as well, though his was a sweeter, gentler look.

"Yes, I suppose you are correct. I just hope that they find the answers they need through each other. So many matters must be resolved; so many wounds must be healed. But, if anyone can get through this hell, it would be them, would it not?" That kind smile grew softer and he directed bright indigo eyes towards the tiled floor in front of his feet. He then flushed when he felt cool fingers snake around his hand and intertwine with his own.

"Yes, it most definitely would be them." He looked up at Dorothy- her gaze directed forward, head held high, a calm half-smile lingering on those lips. Quatre could only think secretly how beautiful the blond-haired woman looked when she walked like that- so confident and powerful. Habitually, his fingers squeezed hers as he straightened to mimic her stance, continuing to walk towards whatever destiny fate presented to him. Even if that destiny was currently waiting down the hallway.

* * *

"I don't like it." The statement came out as a growl, and Lucrezia Noin could only watch with a sigh as the tall form of Zechs Merquise paced the length of the conference room. It had been almost an hour since the meeting, but the former White Fang leader had refused to leave, continuing to stare at the pictures of their targets. Every time he glanced at the screen his frown seemed to grow deeper and his pace quickened by a fraction, until he was all but a glaring blur of irritation. When he spoke, it was a primitive sound, more like a disgruntled admonishment than a confirmed statement. Noin found herself hard-pressed not to laugh, if only momentarily. Zechs was rarely so base in his speech.

Still, she understood his concern as she watched him stomp back and forth across the room, having known Relena for the better part of six years now (though only three of those years involved face-to-face conversation instead of the nostalgic childhood stories her lover had become so fond of telling), and sympathized with his inward distress.

"Zechs, if you keep pacing like that you'll run a hole into Une's floor." She spoke half-heartedly, offering a small smile to try and calm his mood. He merely threw a glance her way before coming to an abrupt halt, glancing down at the floor. Both could swear they saw the beginnings of rug burns in the carpeting.

"What does he think he's doing?" The question was directed at her only by chance, but once asked he obviously expected an answer. She could only shake her head, leaning against the large wooden table of the room. The frown deepened yet again and he resumed his pacing. Milliardo Peacecraft, and furthermore Zechs Merquise, did not like Heero Yuy. Certainly, the two men had gained a grudging respect for each other throughout the war, but what started out as a personal battle had never transformed into friendship, or anything resembling the aspect of that word. If anything, there was only a common goal- one that had been lost three years ago: Relena. And now the goal they had both once strived for seemed to be tearing the careful seams that had formed between the two men.

"He's doing what he thinks is right- just like you, Zechs." Her quiet words brought him to a grim standstill, his hands clenching and unclenching at his side. Noin knew her words had successfully unnerved him, but only through the sheer fact that he knew she was right. Never once had the pilot strayed from that goal. There was no stupidity or personal gain involved in Heero's actions earlier that day, and Zechs knew it. Perhaps that was why it bothered him so. Heero Yuy never did anything without purpose. And, furthermore, he had made that purpose abundantly clear to a room full of former enemies and allies. Yes, that was indeed the answer: Heero had carelessly thrown his unspoken feelings for the blond-haired princess into the conversation, and then walked away with blatant disregard towards his friends. He had made himself heard with a few quiet words and gestures, and finalized the statement with a period marked in blood.

He had taken Milliardo Peacecraft's role as both brother and protector, only to add on the one thing Zechs could never be to his sister: a lover. He had suddenly realized that he had been surpassed, if not replaced, even if it was only by his own definition of the word.

And he hated it.

"You're still her brother, Zechs. That hasn't changed." Lucrezia Noin pushed away from the table to stand in front of the man she knew so well, one hand uncharacteristically trailing up to his hair, then down again to his cheek. He was scowling now, and if he had been any other man she was sure she would have seen tears of anger welling in his eyes. But he was not "any other man," and for that she was infinitely happy. "She'll love you as much tomorrow as she did yesterday or three years ago. She'll believe in you for as long as you'll keep fighting for you, and even after that. And she'll stand beside you even if and when she thinks you're wrong. You're still her blood. You're a part of her, Milliardo." His expression dulled slightly as she said his name. They both knew she never called him Milliardo.

"Noin..." He reached down to pull her into a tight embrace and the former Oz lieutenant stood quietly by as he did so, her own arms snaking upwards to wrap around his neck and stroke his hair. His expression never changed, but his actions spoke volumes. And so she did her best to soothe his buried pain until he could verbally make the conclusion that had been in his mind from the moment his sister's survival had reached his ears.

* * *

"So, what've we got so far?" Duo asked cheerily as he entered one of the many computer rooms of the Preventer building, Hilde trailing behind him. Five pairs of eyes shot up to consider the pair before two returned to the bright terminal in front of the group of people. They had all split up after the conference earlier in the day, pursuing their own courses of action before agreeing to meet up again. From the looks of it, Duo guessed that Wufei and Trowa had all but dove for the computers afterwards... not that either man really dove anywhere, except, perhaps, into bed. The thought made the lecherous pilot smirk to himself.

But it wasn't either man sitting at the computer. Instead, Quatre was perched in a chair, back straight and eyes directed towards the screen in concentration as he typed away. Dorothy was not far from the blond-haired Winner either, a chair pulled close so that she was able to watch the screen from beside him. Trowa's eyes had also returned to the screen, Catherine standing beside him silently with concern painting her face. Wufei was the last to direct his thoughts back to Quatre, but not before asking the question on everyone's mind. "Yuy?"

"Still here. With the princess, of course," Duo beamed. "Don't doubt that he'll be gone in the morning, though. How late is it anyways?" He glanced around with sudden puzzlement, looking for a clock despite the watch he had strapped to his left wrist. The day had seemed to stretch on forever, and now the braided pilot found himself losing track of how much time had passed.

"Almost eight."

"Heh, well, we've got time then. No rushing. He won't leave while she's still awake." He took the opportunity to lean against the desk that the main computer- the one Quatre was working so diligently on- sat upon, leaning forward and craning his neck until he could see the screen for himself. Schematics for several structures were plastered on the screen, followed by boxes of information about each one. There was also no lack of profiles about the three men from Osiris. "So?"

"Lytol Schinzer is our best bet. He does not seem to be trying to hide his whereabouts from us at all. If anything," Quatre smiled slightly to himself as he spoke about the man, "he's inviting us in."

"That's typical of him, from what Une's mentioned about him," Trowa said calmly, green eyes considering the elderly man before them. Though the grizzled soldier seemed menacingly in his pictures, his eyes betrayed a more flippant, confident attitude that was most certainly reflected in his actions.

"And Linnux?"

Quatre shook his head with an aggravated expression- a rare occurrence for the normally patient young man. "Nothing. Not even a trace past what we already know. He's very good at hiding his tracks."

"He is a martial artist. It would be his way to guard those around him, and to do so he must also guard himself." Wufei looked proud as he spoke, even if he was considering the enemy. Arms were crossed confidently over his chest while black eyes burned a hole into the picture of Oren Linnux. Duo could guess that Wufei wanted to capture Linnux for more than one reason.

"The good news is that I think I've found the most immediate place where they'd be meeting as a group. It's an old bunker in the slums of L2, but Schinzer pays annually to keep it off the market. I don't like it though. It seems too sloppy a job to not be one of two things: the wrong location, or a trap." Quatre sighed and leaned back in the chair, placing a steady hand over his eyes. Dorothy wordlessly leaned forward to place a hand on his shoulder.

Wufei snorted. "It doesn't matter. We'll check it out anyways. I'll leave in at midnight."

"I'll go with you. You'll need backup. This is not a job for Preventers," came Trowa's quiet response. Catherine tensed slightly, but merely looked on. The knife-throwing circus woman had seemed to become more tolerant over the years of Trowa's work, especially since their discovery that they were, in truth, blood siblings. An accident during a mission had proved that when Catherine gave her younger brother blood, tests haphazardly confirming what had never even been a thought in their minds before that time. Now, she was all but devoted to standing behind Trowa- no, Triton Bloom. Trowa finally had a name of his own.

"I'm coming too. I would like a word with Schinzer, if that is possible," Quatre chimed in. Dorothy frowned, but did not protest, so unlike her former self who would have all but beaten down the pilot if it had been but a few years earlier. She had stabbed him at one point, after all.

"Duo?" All five pairs of eyes shifted to the braided one, but he merely smiled and looked away, towards the wall, scratching the back of his head.

"Heh. 'Fraid not. I'm going with Heero." There was complete silence after his statement, save for the faintest mutter of "Duo..." from Hilde. "Look, even he needs backup, and I'm the only one who's been inside that building besides him. We'll both be fine, but two is better than one love-sick maniac, don't you think?" He laughed and grinned all at once, but it was not a genuine look. He sighed.

"That won't be necessary." All seven bodies whirled at the sound of the low, bass voice. Then seven paired of eyes widened as they saw two figures standing in the doorway, one partially supported by the other. Breaths caught, before Quatre snapped to life and practically flew from his seat at the computer.

"Miss Relena!"

* * *

"How long do you think it will take them to retaliate?" A voice spoke calmly in the unmoving darkness of the cramped bunker, the blackness of the room hiding the speaker from all views- even his own.

"Can't really say. Expect them any time, 'd be my guess," a second, silkier voice responded to the first. The shrug that occurred did not need to be seen, as it was easily felt. "They won't sit still and let things lie, that's for sure. Especially not _him_. He'll be diving for someone's throat, and I don't really wanted it to be mine." The voice laughed softly, carelessly at its words, and the creak of a chair cushion could be heard piercing the demi-silence of the room.

"Is he so powerful?"

Another laugh. "Boy, he'd whip the pants off your body and beat you with them until you were dead if it meant giving her back a little bit of what we stole." More laughter followed, and now the second voice seemed to be uncontrollable in its mirth. "I've seen that kid self-destruct a mobile suit without a thought while still inside of it. Kid's got guts... and heart. And you'd be stupid not to know who has that heart in her fine little hands."

"Wha-?"

"That's enough, Schinzer." A third voice chimed in, younger than the second but endlessly irritated to the point where it could easily be passed as that of an older man.

"Aww, you're no fun, Daye. Loosen up a little, boy. Chin up. Hope that he lets you keep your insides where they are. He's a bit of a sadist, from what I've heard, and-"

"Schinzer..." the voice was a tense growl, but the older man continued with his jovial torture.

"-slightly suicidal too. Hm... Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll just settle for you and leave the rest of us to rot in he-"

"Lytol." All sound stopped as a fourth voice cut through the air like a knife, cold and calculating and thoroughly monotone. It was the type of voice that could send shivers down your spine and freeze her body to the floor. "That will be enough."

The silence settled over the dark room after that point, the voices seeming to be waiting on something. Finally, there was a miniscule shuffle. "I want her back."

"You've got to be kidding me. Do you want to be mutilated AND fried on a grill?" The voice came incredulously to answer the request to the final member of the conversation.

"You have your orders. I want her back. Now. And I want this place destroyed. They'll know about it by now." And with that a door opened somewhere across the room, shedding light upon the three men who were still perched on chairs and beds settled across the small gray room. The fourth man turned back to the other three, dark grey eyes glinting sharply until they seemed almost silver as the light from outside the door framed his body in obsidian. He said no more, but those eyes grazed the room and his subordinates, cutting a clean line with that fierce gaze. Then, abruptly, he stepped out and closed the door behind him, leaving the other three to sit numbly in the dark.

"I knew I didn't like him..."

* * *

AN: Hm, First chapter with no real Relena and Heero in it. No worries, lots of that next chapter. And the beginnings of the search for those four evil jackasses. OH! And, finally, you get to know what REALLY happened to Relena. ::cackle:: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one will probably be out tomorrow or Monday. Thanks everyone!


	7. Remembrance

Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine

**Reviewer Comments:**

**SulliMike23**- Reminds you someone? ::blinku:: Interesting... I'm curious now.

**Stalker Of Dreamz**- Really now? Hm... Yeah, I can definately see what you mean, and truthfully I've never been against the 3x4 pairing, but I've always liked to put Quatre and Dorothy together. Great dynamics, I think. Plus Dorothy is just a very strange character to write. hehe. Thanks for reviewing! Much Heero-kicking-ass will ensue.

**Ladybug**- I have my own ideas for Relena getting in on the action. No worries!

**To Everyone**- That's to everyone who reviewed! I'm always so giddy when I get to read what you guys have to say about the story! Keeps me writing. Sorry for the short chapter, but I've got a bit of a cold this week and truthfully I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to put in this chapter. It'll be longer next chapter, promise. .

* * *

Chapter 7

It had startled him when she simply started speaking, laying beside him on the bed while staring at the ceiling above them. He had managed to coax her back to lying down, but not without getting dragged down with her as well. He thought she would sleep without problem or protest after that, but even the ever-present exhaustion in her system was pushed aside as she began her story.

"_I don't really know what happened that first day. I remember waving goodbye and boarding the plane, watching everyone from the window, and taking off. I think somewhere along the way I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew there was an explosion and the pilot was ushering me into a parachute."_ She had been so calm while talking, thoughtful in her words, but he could feel the tension when she mentioned the parachute. _"He pushed me out the door right before the plane exploded. I didn't realize until later that he had been a part of it all- another rebel fooled into throwing his life away._

"_When I landed, they were waiting for me- more than a dozen with guns. They had it planned all along- I knew it then, I know it now- but I still don't know how... It was done so cleanly, Heero. All these years of watching the war, and the five of you with your Gundams... it was almost too simple. I still don't understand."_ She had turned on her side to look at him at that point, cerulean eyes glittering sharply through the darkness. He had seen that look in her eyes before- that determination mixed with confusion and concentration. He hated and loved that look.

"_They took me by van to an old mobile suit facility- at least that's what I think it was- and locked me away for the better part of a month in a bedroom in the staff quarters. They were hospitable enough. Food arrived daily and I had both a bathroom and shower to use, but the windows had bars and the doors were always locked. The people were pleasant, but no one stayed to talk with me or explain who had taken me captive. When I was moved again, it was sometime during the night, and this time it wasn't so pleasant as before."_ She shuddered and instinctively curled into a tight ball upon the bed. _"This time, the soldiers were cruder and they give little thought towards my well-being. I was kept in a cell on my own, and sometimes left for days without food or water. I don't even remember how I kept track of the time, I just know that somewhere around half a year into my staying there... the beatings began."_ Her voice had dulled suddenly as unwanted memories flooded back to her, her eyes growing distant and lost, staring somewhere above and beyond his shoulder.

"_It was like some sort of sick pastime to them: come in, pick whomever seemed most vulnerable at the moment, and simply take out every frustration imaginable on that person. I wasn't the only one, after all. There were others- men and women alike. But they seemed to like me the best. Something about my "upbringing" and "those rich spoiled brats." I suppose they thought I was just another politician's daughter,"_ she sighed, turning to bury her face in the sheets before continuing on in a muffled voice. _"I never gave them the satisfaction of hearing me cry out, though. And that made it all the worse. The other prisoners called me suicidal,"_ she laughed bitterly at the word, _"and asked me if I had a death wish."_ She glanced up at him again, her eyes glazed over with fatigue. _"I told them that pride was more important than health. Those men did not care about how much they beat us; they just wanted to hear us plead. I will never plead."_ Her gaze had turned fierce then, blazing with an internal heat that could easily rival his own. She had certainly been through hell, but had yet to even mention the worst of it.

He had listened patiently.

"_That was where I stayed the longest, I believe. Almost a year and a half in that wretched place; beaten like a dog and treated like nothing. When I was moved again, I was relieved. I thought it would be over- that someone had realized what was happening and tried to rectify the mistake. But I was wrong. I was terribly wrong." _The first hint of tears crept into her voice as she spoke. She was no longer recounting her steps, but instead retelling an epic tale of sorts; a story of a character from long ago who had survived against the toughest odds. Relena no longer existed.

"_We moved around more than I can count for the next few months. Even the soldiers were half-starved most of the time. There was no food for anyone. I slept away most of those days to try and block out the hunger, so I don't remember much of where we were or what we did. I just know we never stayed in one place too long and we were usually traveling by van. It was cold, too. Like when we were in Antarctica._

"_We finally settled at an airbase and I was picked out from the rest of the prisoners and sent off with a small group of soldiers by air. That was how I ended up where I was when you found me. It was a cell just like before, but this one was all walls and that one door. They took care to bring food on a regular basis until I was well again from the starvation of the past few months. For some time, it was okay. They gave me fresh clothes and allowed me to take a shower. Then I met Zephyr."_ His eyes had focused rigidly on her features when she mentioned the familiar name. She was no longer looking anywhere in his vicinity, but instead kept her chin tucked down next to her chest, golden strands of hair cascading down in front of her eyes and face.

"_At first it was in passing that I saw him with the other men- usually Lytol or Oren- but he summoned me to his quarters one day. I went, thinking he was just like all the people before, that he wanted to negotiate my release and rub the capture in my face. Along the way, I was informed that it was he who had planned the plane crash from the beginning. I was prepared to tell him that he would never succeed and that his requests were ridiculous and fool-hearty. But I never expected..."_ Her eyes had grown wide and she had turned away from him with a choked sob. _"Oh god, Heero..."_ In that moment, he would have killed the man had he been standing in the same room: ripped him apart without a thought and thrown his carcass to the vultures if it could have taken away her pain. But Zephyr Cronis had not been in that room, and all that was left of those past three years had been a broken woman and four men unworthy of life.

He had let her cry, unsure of what to say or do to comfort her. Heero had never been any good when it came to people, never knowing if he should speak or act. Instead, he had waited for her to quiet down before sitting up. In all his awkwardness he had done the first thing that had come to mind: offered to let her use his shower. She had looked at him with perhaps the most peculiar expression he had ever seen, then suddenly burst out laughing, tears still streaming down her face. She had accepted and disappeared into the bathroom for well over an hour (taking an oversized button-up shirt and a spare pair of his slacks with her), but when she emerged she was radiant. He would never forget that image.

And now they both stood at the threshold of the doorway to the main computer lab of the Preventer building, exchanging glances and happy greetings with friends whom Relena had not seen, literally, for years. Quatre and Duo were all but crushing the girl, but Heero found himself in a daze as he saw the genuine delight in her eyes and expression. She was finally home.

"...ero... Heero!" He blinked away the memories of those past few hours as he saw a room full of eyes staring at him with everything from bewilderment to amusement. How long had they been staring at him? "We know you're happy she's home, buddy, but you should save that stuff for when you're alone." Duo, always Duo.

"Hn." He turned away with his usual response and considered the monitor they had all been staring at when he had entered, sharp Prussian eyes glaring at the sight set out before him. These were the men who had hurt Relena.

"Heero?" He felt the feather-soft touch on his arm at the same time the voice brushed past his ear and he looked up to see her standing there, watching him with that same quiet, understanding gaze he remembered so well. He concluded that, no matter what she had been through, Relena was most definitely the same woman she had been before. Hers was still the kindest heart.

"I'm leaving in the morning. I'll keep a link open. I expect everyone else to do the same. No one moves without someone else knowing. Understood?" He did not wait for a confirmation before turning back out from the doorway and starting down the hall. He could hear the faint shuffle as Relena attempted to follow him, only to have Duo hold her back.

"No worries, princess. He's just a little overwhelmed like the rest of us. Come on, you're probably hungry. Q-man here makes a _mean_ omelette." Duo would take care of it. For now, he had other matter to attend to.

"Duo, now really-"

"An omelette? That would be wonderful!"

"I-if you really want, Miss Relena, but..."

* * *

AN: Just go ahead and look at the "To Everyone" under reviewer comments. It explains away. Once again, sorry about the shortness of the chap and the weird format. Lots of past-tense that was just plain out redundant to write. . Ay me...

Thanks for reading!

-Sar


	8. Preparations

Disclaimer: Damnit, do you not get this concept? I DON'T OWN GUNDAM WING! ::cries::

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Ulitheal**- I'm glad you can find something unique in the story, it means a lot. As for your question, it's actually one that the pilots are asking themselves- especially Duo and Heero. As talked about in the early chapters, Heero searched long and hard for Relena and came up empty. This is something that's going to be confronted when the boys start meeting up with Cronis and company. All questions will be answered in time! Thanks for the review!

**La La La Anime Fan**- Omelettes are good.... Mmm....

**SulliMike23**- Right there with you. We'll all have our fun. Action is coming!

**Tsubasa no Kami**- ::huggles her 'Lena-san:: Hee-chan's shower. ::melt::

**SonicBloom**- O.o Fwee! More is here!

**Stalker Of Dreamz**- Ass kicking next chapter! Really! I'm dead serious this time! Look, look! It's all set up and happy! And yes, foooood.....

**mT96**- Thankee dearie!

**DogDemonK9**- Every girl's thought: If only I were Relena. ::sigh:: Hell, _I_ want to use his shower! Is it right to be jealous of your own fanfiction scenarios? ::blinku:: And, yes, Dorothy eyebrow waxing! hehe.

**To Everyone**- Thanks for all the reviews and for everyone who is following along, or just skimming along, or.... well, thanks for reading!

* * *

Chapter 8

It was almost midnight when he began to change, having hours ago already packed away the necessary weaponry and supplies he would need. As Relena had yet to make an appearance, his best guess was that she had fallen asleep elsewhere. It was best that way, for more than one reason. He did not feel the need to hear her pleas not to fight. Not tonight. Not this time.

He realized with mild irritation halfway through his preparations that he had not showered for the better part of two days. Since bringing Relena back, in fact. In his rush to tend to the girl he had all but forgotten about his own needs. Now, he thankfully peeled away the layers of the Preventer uniform and slipped into the shower, turning on the hot water and letting it run over his body in waves. There, alone and relaxed beneath the cascade of heat, Heero could think clearly for the first time in days.

* * *

She walked quietly down the third floor hallway, head bowed and fingers dragging lightly along the wall. After a night of being overfed and spoiled rotten by all four Gundam pilots, as well as the girls, Relena was more than exhausted. She had long forgotten where her original bedroom resided, and was now headed to the only place she was familiar with: Heero's quarters.

The time with her long-lost friends had been eventful. She had told them, in part, the same story she had told Heero, and received her share of warm hugs and angry curses towards the men who had made her life hell. But that was where the pity ended, and she was more than relieved. Throughout the night it had seemed as though they were all finally melting back into the people they had been three years previous. In the end, nothing had changed except for a few bruises and painful memories. That, and anatomies, of course. Yes, they had all "grown" their share over the years. At one point, Duo had even merited a good double slap upside the head by both Hilde and herself due to a lewd comment concerning Relena's "rack." Everyone had laughed.

She smiled to herself and stopped in mid-step, thinking about each of them in turn. Everyone was as wonderful as she remembered. Duo was still bubbly and kind, touching everyone and everything as though they were his oxygen while Hilde laughed and scolded him. Quatre was quiet, but strong; understanding, but determined. She had been a bit shocked to learn he and Dorothy were more than friends, but it was a pleasant shock. She had heartily congratulated them. Wufei was no different with his "suspicious" (as Duo put it) relationship with Sally Po, but that had been an anticipated outcome for all of them. Even Trowa and Catherine's sibling revelation had been a warm welcome, and simply a new fact to store away in her mind. Everyone was happy, and now she would be too; as long as she had them, she would be.

She paused once again as she approached the doorway that was always a source of anticipation and excitement. _Heero..._ The name brought a soft smile to her lips. She loved that name as much as she loved the man who wore it, real or not. He had been so tolerant of her since her return, so unlike himself as she remembered, but at the same time the most unchanged of them all. Duo had spoken some on the Wing pilot and his behavior since her abduction, but she still found herself floundering in the dark. Had he searched for her? Had he moved on without her? Had he mourned when he thought she was dead? There were still far too many questions left without answers, but, for once, she knew that she had time to ask them. And she would. In time.

With a sigh she turned the handle on the door and stepped in, forgetting exactly what kind of place she was walking into: a boy's room. She heard a rustle of clothing and looked up in mid-stride before blanching and coming to a halt.

Deep Prussian considered her silently from across the room even as Heero Yuy finished sliding into a fresh pair of black pants. Thankfully he had already been dressed in boxers when she entered, but she still found herself staring. Had he really grown so much? His exposed chest was more than enough to make normal girls drool in that moment, chiseled and smooth at first glance. He had filled out uniformly with muscle so that he no longer looked scrawny, but was still delightfully slim. The remnants of water on his skin simply made the sight all the more enticing. Dumbfounded, she found her jaw working for something to say, her eyes all the while riveted on his body.

"I thought you would have fallen asleep upstairs." His voice snapped her from her daze, cool and monotonous and deep.

Shaking her head, she managed to tear her gaze away and look him in the eye. "No, Hilde offered to let me stay with her and Duo, but I didn't want to disturb them." She blushed lightly and searched for a miscellaneous object on which to focus her gaze. When had Heero grown up?

"Hn."

Stepping fully inside the room, she closed the door softly behind her before leaning back against it for support, directing her eyes to the floor. She was all too aware that she was wearing his clothing at this moment, her hair brushed with his comb (she had experienced something of a heart attack upon that discovery). She owed him so much, and had now managed to barge in when he was dressing...

Dressing?

She glanced up in alarm, realizing that he had approached in the time it took her to settle against the door. Locking gazes, she frowned up at him, pushing to her full height. She was shorter than him after all this time. "You're going, aren't you?" It was not so much a question as a demand. Heero froze like a deer in headlights, that expression saying nothing of the turmoil that would be raging below the surface.

"This is something I have to do."

"Bullshit!" Three years surrounded by soldiers had done nothing for her vocabulary.

"Relena, I-"

"No, I won't accept that! You're going because of me, after men whose objective we never knew in the first place, to get revenge for a past that can't be changed. Why can't you just leave it be? Why can't you just stay here and be happy that we're together again and leave it at that?" She could feel her eyebrows begin to curve upwards towards one another, her resolve breaking down as she asked.

"...You know the answer." She knew. She knew, but that only made the truth hurt that much more. How many more times would he throw himself in harm's way for her? How many times had he already done so?

Her fists clenched at her sides, her determination returning at the thought. She frowned at him, though it was not for him in particular. "I won't let you." She had tried this approach once before, long ago.

"Please let me go." So simple, those words. They would be her downfall.

"No. Heero-"

"This is the only thing I can do for you." One hand reached out to capture a stray piece of blond hair between gentle fingers. It was like watching a horde of bad dreams being meshed together. He would leave no matter what she said.

He carefully drew her away from the door and shifted until she was standing off to the side, staring at him dazedly. Retreating to the bed, he slipped a clean white t-shirt over his head and grabbed up the Preventer's jacket strewn across the bed, shoving on a pair of boots before returning to the doorway. He opened it and paused, glancing over his shoulder as she watched him with that despairing look painted on her features. And then he did something unexpected.

He smiled.

"Believe in me."

He was out the door and gone before she could say anything more.

* * *

He boarded the shuttle with Relena's expression still fresh in his mind, heading for the cockpit without a second thought towards going back on his word. He would protect her, even if he could not turn back the years. Glancing upwards, he saw Duo already settled comfortably in the passenger seat, lounging across his seat like a bored child. Upon Heero's entrance he glanced up and grinned at his dark-haired comrade. "Yo, Buddy. What took ya so long?" Heero glared.

"Get off. You're not coming." He seated himself at the controls and buckle the shuttle belts around his shoulders, flipping choice switches as the shuttle hummed to life. Duo only shifted in order to strap himself in as well.

"No can do, Buddy. Made a promise to a lady." The braided pilot winked and grinned all at once, sitting back languidly in his seat and throwing his arms behind his head. "...And so did you."

"Hn."

That was the end of the conversation as the door of the shuttle closed and the hangar shifted into position beneath the colony, opening out into the depth of space. He had no more time to waste with either Duo or alternate forms of transportation. With a flourish of the engines and a lurch they took off to pursue the answers and the men they were all searching for.

* * *

"Think they'll be okay?" Trowa stepped out into the hangar where the shuttle had previously sat, the oxygen already returned to the enclosed space. Green eyes gazed out to take in the empty lot before glancing to the side as a platinum-haired figure joined him with a ready smile.

"Aren't they always?"

"That depends if Maxwell can keep his hands off anything." Wufei wasted no time in joining the two other pilots in the empty hangar, dark eyes looking out at the same area Trowa's had previously surveyed.

"You forget that they're both going for her sake. Duo won't do anything to jeopardize that," Quatre responded quietly. He sighed and turned away. "And we should be going as well. Lady Une will most likely be upset if she realizes we're going to be taking both shuttles before she can even have a say in it."

"I agree. She hasn't been in a good mood since Yuy broke that crystal," Wufei scowled, disappearing into the elevator separating the hangar from the rest of the building.

"I told her not to use those casually." They could all hear Trowa's chuckle even as Quatre spoke with a resigned shake of the head.

Hopefully the coming day would be as eventful as the night had been.

* * *

"Are they all on their way?"

"Yessir. It has been confirmed that two shuttles have recently left Preventer airspace, one heading towards L2, the other an unconfirmed location."

"Perfect. Prepare to greet our 'guests.'"

* * *

AN: Fwee! Beginnings of ass-kicking next chapter! The boys are in hunter mode now! I'll try for this weekend if I can. Just let me recover from my cold first, ne? Ja, Minna-san!


	9. Search and Surprise

Disclaimer- Come on now, how many times are we going to go through this?

**Reviewer Comments**:

**Stephanie**- I think this chapter will answer that question in part. They'll definately get their share, but it'll be worth it in the end.

**SidhePrincessAislinn**- I'm glad you think so. It's good to know the story can appeal to lots of different people. I've read my share of 1x2 fics, but I find I like writing 1xR a lot. Dunno why... Hm.. Thanks for reviewing!

**SonicBloom**- Oh, I'm with you in the "he's not REAL, Damnit!" category! hehe.

**Purdy**- It was definately my favorite chapter to write so far. I really just sat down and typed that baby out in no time. Inspiration is good! And if only I already had this whole thing typed out... That would be a lifesaver for me. But, alas, I don't. I'm just a psycho who likes to write. Not that I really held up the whole "fast writer" thing for this chapter. Whoops! hehe.

**DogDemonK9**- Hey, she's still got her modesty! Okay... well, I suppose she probably would be a little regretful, but 'Lena is 'Lena.

**Tsubasa no Kami**- ::pat::

**La La La Anime Fan**- Fadora? ::blinku::

**Ulitheal**- Oo, I'll give you suspense! ::cackle::

**To Everyone**- Thanks for all the reviews, guys, and SO SORRY for the delay. I know I'm a week over when I said I'd get it out. Gomen ne! Some explanation in the AN. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, and LOOK! Mild action! Yay!

* * *

Chapter 9

Duo Maxwell looked up at the towering, shattered building for the second time that week, the very structure crumbling as he stood there. It was still dark out, the entirety of the shuttle trip having taken no more than an hour at most. They had driven the first time, cramped in the small military vans for hours on end all for what had come to be a rather simple, rather productive takedown. After all, finding a presumably dead princess was not on their everyday "to do" list as Preventers. He smirked. No, that part was just a pleasant benefit of the job.

As he approached the rundown structure he glanced at the stoic man beside him, walking steadily and with purpose. Heero had said little past his initial scolding- not that he was really all that talkative to begin with, but even Duo had become accustomed to some form of communication when the stone-faced pilot was not sleeping. Now, it was rather disturbing to look upon his friend. There was something in his demeanor that made Duo infinitely relieved that he was not one of their targets: something predatory. Still, whether or not Heero would actually resort to killing was still up in the air. Would the pilot's anger override the vow to both himself and the woman he loved?

Deciding to break the silence as they approached their destination, Duo languidly stretched before asking, "So what exactly are we looking for in here? They wouldn't be stupid enough to leave important information behind." They were both armed to the teeth with every reasonable, concealable weapon imaginable, not that either truly believed they would be needed any of those weapons for the time being. If anything, it was habit to have every resource available- not to mention the wireless comlinks stuck into their ears. Whatever anyone of the two groups said, the others would hear.

"Mistakes." The braided boy quirked a brow and was prepared to question this answer when Heero spoke again. "Cronis and the others might be efficient on an individual level, but the people who work below them are still just ill-informed rebels working towards a false objective. Humans make mistakes, especially when they don't know what they're fighting for." Something sparked in those Prussian eyes as he spoke, but Duo did not venture to chase after the cause. He had gotten his answer.

They entered the building the same way they had during the original mission, climbing quickly down into the lower levels of the shelter until they were once again surrounded by the maze of hallways, all passages faintly lit by generator lights placed along the walls. With little thought Heero turned away and began to disappear down one of the hallways, eyes locked on the area before him, searching. Duo blinked in confusion and made to follow him when a call back caused him to stop. "I'm going to find the main database. Search the area for anything that might have been left behind, and stay on alert."

With a sigh and a grumble, the braided pilot could only turn away in compliance, grinning ever so slightly to himself. Heero would never change.

With that, both men were consumed by the half-light and shadows.

* * *

It did not surprise Heero when we discovered the main computer of the facility destroyed- smashed and shredded by chairs and in-built self-destruct mechanisms that had been activated once the rebels had realized they were fighting a losing battle. In fact, he had been almost counting on it as he dug through the mess of papers, glass, and crushed metal for any remnants of disks or the computer hard drive itself. After all, it was not hard to restore apparently "lost" information if one had the proper resources. But, to his concealed irritation, he found only trash and useless information. The necessary components for hacking had either been destroyed or damaged beyond repair. All that was left was the rare chance of searching soldier's quarters- there were always the idiots who were moronically genius enough to infiltrate their own faction's secrets.

And so he began his search, unsuspecting and wary all at once.

* * *

Papers, papers, and more papers. Useless papers, to be exact. These people HAD been a rebel force, hadn't they? But it seemed as though Duo could only find piles upon piles of bullshit: reports from the war six years old, schematics for buildings that had long ago crumbled beneath mobilesuits, and mission reports that spoke of orders carried out long before Osiris had ever been formed. Besides the last bit of information (for old mission reports could tell tales, indeed), there was no trace of any "mistakes"- or anything threatening to begin with. Were these people really the same ones who had stolen Relena from beneath the Gundam Pilots' noses?

"Yo, Heero, I can't find anything around this place. It doesn't seem like they were active at all," he said over the crackle of the comlink in his ear, shifting through paper and debris as he went. A moment later he heard the gruff reply.

"Computers are also a failure. Smashed, all of them, and thoroughly. Keep looking."

"Looking for _what_? And don't say mistakes again because that's ju-"

"Anything. There's something we're missing and... wait..." The com sudden went dead in Duo's ear, causing the braided pilot to freeze as well, papers strewn haphazardly on the floor before him.

"Did you find something?" Silence. Duo frowned. "Oi, Heero-"

"Get out! Get out of the building!"

"Wha-"

And then Duo was overcome with the backlash of multiple explosions as, one by one, bombs began to go off.

* * *

Quatre shook his head as he once again tried to connect to Heero and Duo, receiving only static and dead air. He, Trowa, and Wufei had arrived at the bunker several minutes ago and had been attempting to contact their fellow pilots since, only to find that the links were inoperational. Had something gone wrong? Glancing up at the other boys, he could see that the same thoughts were swirling in their minds. What had happened?

It was Wufei who first moved to action, pushing away from the side of a building he had been leaning against and glancing towards their destination, which lay across the way in a series of former Oz barracks. "We can't wait any longer. Let's go."

"But, Wufei-"

"He's right, Quatre. We have our own mission to worry about," Trowa stated quietly, following the Chinese pilot as he started towards the neglected building. The crestfallen blond followed with an understanding nod, sighing as he heard his companion's next question. "...You do realize this is probably a trap, right?"

"Well aware, Barton, but better a trap than nothing at all."

"I agree."

And so they continued on, Quatre's eyes glancing up to take in the scenery around them- not that there was really much to look at. Some parts of L2 had never recovered from the war, especially since the disappearance of Relena Darlian. Not only had the Colonies neglected the war-ravaged areas, but also all hope of reviving those areas died with the spirit of the Vice Foreign Minister. No one had had the heart to carry on after Relena, save for the few projects the Winner Corporation could manage. Even the position of Vice Foreign Minister still stood empty, all likely candidates refusing to accept. Quatre could only wonder at what would come about once it was revealed she was alive.

The buildings that lined the streets were dark, ominous monsters in the early morning light of the colony. Most were crumbling, if not already partially demolished, and those that were still standing strong were easily seen as worn and shabby. Even so, he could see the whispers of life that hung upon the housing: laundry hung out to dry, children's toys strewn about apartment steps, day-old cigarette butts piled near overturned trashcans. It was not a glamorous life, but it was a life. The people of L2 had known nothing more for the better part of thirty-five years now, and it was just as well. False hope was a cruel state of being.

The barracks and surrounding housing had once been a concealed base for Oz forces. Soldiers and their families had inhabited the apartments and barracks as though they were normal civilians, receiving orders through what was considered "everyday conversation." This was perhaps the only reason why the houses were currently occupied, former Oz families clinging to the very last amount of life they had, no matter how rundown or despairing. The thought made Quatre shake his head in sorrow.

They approached the entrance to the barracks with little thought towards what they were truly searching for. The point had always been to simply find evidence- they would know what exactly that was when they found it. Quatre found him falling behind, little by little, dazed by his thoughts of the L2 colony, and so found himself some yards away from the other two former pilots as Wufei reached for the door handle.

"I wouldn't do that if I were him..." Quatre heard the voice before he saw anything, but the feeling that overwhelmed him suddenly burst forth from his lips almost as soon as the words left the mouth of the one who spoke.

"Wufei, NO!"

But it was too late as the door creaked open, followed by a moment of deathly, unnerving silence.

Then there was only Chaos.

* * *

AN: Okay, everyone, once again REALLY sorry for the delay. Here's the thing: been having health problems lately, and said problems interfer a lot with the amount of energy I have, the amount of thinking I can do, and the relative control of my hands, strange as that sounds. Basically, some family health issues are coming to haunt me, and we have yet to confirm or deny if that's the problem. Because of this, it makes it really difficult for me to concentrate on my schoolwork, muchless a story that I'm pulling out of thin air. So, please be patient with me over the next couple of weeks, and don't kill me if writing is a bit sporadic.

As for the chapter itself, a little short, but you finally get to watch bad guy-good guy interaction next chapter and find out what's up with all the chaos and strangeness. No worries! We're getting down to it!

Thanks for all your patience and enthusiam! They mean a lot!

-Sar


	10. First Encounters

Disclaimer: GW is not mine and will never be mine, but I'll happily claim Oren, Lytol, and the other bastards.

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Mikairi**- Thankee dearie! I'm glad my characters are on track! hehe. Always a good thing!

**tanni**- Of COURSE they can't die! Pfft... Silly girl. hehe.

**DogDemonK9**- Yeah, I'm evil that way. But, look! Answer to the cliffhanger!

**GM1**- Yay! I have a plot! Yeah, I figure it's probably a good thing to write a story. If I wanted to do blatant romance, I'd throw you guys a one-shot, but stories are more fun! Glad you like it! Thanks for the review!

**Stalker Of Dreamz**- Okay, this time there really IS ass-kicking! Well... in a sense of the word, though I suppose you won't like who gets their asses kicked... . .... ::whistles:: Oh, and, yes, water Heero Good!

**mT96**- Thankee!

**SonicBloom**- Yeah, but we can always dream...

**Sakura Blossom-Cilla-85:P**- Eh... They'll be okay in the end.

**Ulitheal**- Sorry! Feel free to beat me upside the head. I know me and my "suspense" can get frustrating. .;;;

**La La La Anime Fan**- I'm still trying to picture Heero in a fedora....

**To Everyone**- Thankies for the reviews or simply for reading! Enjoy the next chapter and feel free to vent your anger! ::devious cackle::

* * *

Chapter 10

"_I don't know what to do now... now that the war is over. I've been fighting and living alongside other people so long, I don't really know where I should be anymore," she said in a voice that was far too quiet and tame for her personality. All the confidence and pride that existed in those bright eyes had died out, if only for one reflective moment. And all he could do was stand there silently beside her, watching her as she looked on calmly into the dead of space. "Where do I start?" _

_He did not know what to say, how to respond. He had never heard her speak in such a way: so defeated and lost. But those emotions she expressed made him feel stronger, braver- as though he could take on the world and rescue her from herself and the emptiness she was feeling- the despair she felt at being useless. Even now, she was still thinking about everyone else but herself. _

_He laughed, gently and sweetly, watching as her gaze redirected itself to examine him with the slightest hints of irritation and puzzlement._

"_You really do have the kindest heart..."_

* * *

Quatre coughed and jerked awake, sprawled painfully across the pavement of L2 like some form of roadkill. His ears hummed, only hearing the rapid pulse of blood within his own brain, temporarily deaf to the rest of the world. His eyes burned and stung, making it impossible to open them without pain. His head and body felt as though they had been thrown repeatedly into a concrete wall, and the pain only intensified when he tried to sit up. It was only with a strained heave that he managed to do so.

The air burned and crackled from the explosion, acrid fumes molesting the blonde's already abused lungs, and watering eyes opened experimentally to survey the damage caused.

Quatre could see that he had been thrown practically across the lot, having been hit by the blunt of the explosion. He realized with fleeting relief that Trowa had managed to throw both himself and Wufei to relative safety behind a nearby trash dumpster and were now, much like himself, regaining their senses and their feet. Looking down, he could see raw skin and charred clothing, but the heat burns were minor compared to the damage done to the barracks.

They were demolished.

"I told you he shouldn't have done that..." Quatre tried to rise at the sound of the voice, but only managed to stumble forward and return to the ground once more. Instead, he settled for what his limited sight could find and soon was looking upon an older man- perhaps in his sixties- who stood off to one side, arms crossed over a barreled chest, one hand gripping a detonator. Quatre's eyes widened at the sight, instantly knowing the aging man from his picture.

Lytol Schinzer.

Schinzer's gaze shifted to rest upon Quatre almost as soon as the injured boy had identified him. He was tall and powerful- naturally imposing despite his age- but his face was calm and wise, his eyes patient and almost... regretful? Dark brown met clouded blue and the older man offered a half-smile and a small, two-fingered wave. "Sorry about that, Kid. That must hurt."

Quatre stared. _This_ was the enemy?

He tried again to stand and, as before, failed miserably. His head swam with exhaustion and pain, but he could not tear his eyes away from the man before him. Lytol Schinzer... A former Oz general and captor of Relena Darlian for the past three years... standing there, before him.... Smiling and apologizing. Even the refined Winner heir could not process such information.

"Quatre!" The sound of another voice snapped the already dazed pilot from his thoughts and he turned to see both Wufei and Trowa sprinting towards him, determination in their eyes. Both were nursing wounds of their own, but none of it seemed to matter as they came to the aid of their comrade. Schinzer did not move from his position, watching the situation calmly, still fingering the useless detonator in one hand. He was no longer smiling, but his eyes held a quiet, commanding presence that could only come from years of rigid control.

Wufei stopped short of his goal, skidding to a halt to face Schinzer head-on as Trowa closed the gape between Quatre and himself. The man known as Lytol Schinzer only quirked a brow at the Chinese boy, his head tilting ever so slightly to one side as he sized up the justice-crazed member of the Dragon Clan.

"Coward! Such lowly means by which to fight your opponent!" Wufei's hands, bloody from where his arms had been shredded by debris, were clenched tightly at his side, his stance wide and powerful even through his small frame. His hair was loosed from its normal ponytail so that it looked drastically wild. Black eyes were narrowed with anger and outrage. His Preventer jacket was shredded in multiple places and Quatre could see the burns that were beginning to form on his hands beneath the blood. Chang Wufei was in no shape to fight, even by his own standards, but he would and they all knew it. And this only made Schinzer laugh heartily.

"You're the pipsqueak who beat Treize, aren't you? I would have thought you'd be... bigger..." The aging man seemed to seriously be sizing up his younger adversary, a smile once again gracing his lips. "You don't seem like you could scratch a fly, boy..."

The comment was enough to send Wufei over the edge, and Quatre could see him take a step forward before Trowa cut in once again. "Wufei, enough. He's testing your will."

"I'm well aware what he's testing, Barton, and I fully intend-"

"Barton, eh? Now, that can't be right. As I recall, Trowa Barton was a loud-mouthed, son-of-a-bitch sadist. You don't seem like any of that... Though you Gundam Pilots are a strange lot," Schinzer went on, altogether ignoring the burning form of Wufei now. Quatre was sure the Oriental soldier would soon lose all sense of restraint. "No wonder Cronis likes the girl the best..." That grabbed all attention.

"What?" With the help of Trowa, Quatre staggered to his feet, leaning heavily on him. "What about Miss Relena?"

Schinzer's attention shifted again. "Our little princess? You're not that dense, are you? I thought you were a Winner! Oh well... Suppose it'll be out soon anyways. Zephyr's got a thing for that little girl. Hell-bent on getting her back, even going after her boyfriend himself. I've never seen him get so excited over something, really, and I've known that guy for awhile now..."

The pilots exchanged confused glances before the words hit.

"Heero!"

* * *

A grunt could be heard beneath the shifting of sheet metal and concrete, the mess that was now the former Osiris Headquarters altering almost imperceptibly. The next moment the tall, lean form of Heero Yuy could be seen slipping from beneath the debris, blood running freely down the right side of his face while his arms, clothes, and hair were singed and raw. Glancing around, he could only feel anger at the situation they were suddenly facing.

Cronis was mocking him.

The bombs, though real and destructive enough, had been only powerful enough to cause considerable damage to the interior of the sturdy shelter and, if close enough, kill a normally unsuspecting person. But Heero had been neither unsuspecting nor a normal person and had all but thrown himself towards the safety of the hallway before his "fortunate" discovery had detonated. The explosion had loosed much of the crumbling structure of the building, but the walls had, for the most part, held. The part that infuriated him was that the man known as Zephyr Cronis had left him a calling card- a recording that still burned in his ears.

"Enjoy_ her while you can." _

The bomb had switched to activation as soon as the message had finished, but Heero had been halfway out the door by that time, seething and determined as he raced against what was only a three-second time frame, shouting at Duo over the comlink. The way the voice had said "enjoy" had made him both appalled and enraged.

Now, the comlink crackled in his ear with the static caused by the debris. He did not bother trying to call upon his comrades- the equipment was ruined. Tearing the small communicator from his ear, he threw it aside and began to wind his way through the fallen debris, his mind pushing aside the pain his body felt in order to mentally locate Duo. Undoubtedly, the braided boy would not have wandered too far.

Sure enough, it was not long before he could hear the muttered cursing of the energetic pilot, and it only required the turn of a corner before he was in sight, trying to disentangle himself from amongst his own share of broken metal and shattered rock. Upon looking up, he paused momentarily to consider Heero.

"This sucks."

"Hn."

"It just gets worse from here." Heero whirled as he heard the new voice, Duo doing his best to race- or stumble- forward. A man stood a ways down the hall, unarmed and unscathed, simply staring at them with unblinking, startlingly blue eyes.

Heero's voice was a monotonous growl when he spoke. "Linnex."

"Heero Yuy, I presume? And I suppose you are Duo Maxwell. Normally I would find myself honored to be in the presence of two Gundam Pilots, but for the moment... Well, I don't suppose many men would be honored to have those same pilots hunting them down... Or would they?" A faint smile played at the man's lips, and Heero found himself distinctly reminded of Trowa.

"Ya hear that, Heero? We're celebrities! Heh, makes our job easier, doesn't it?" Duo stepped towards the short, blond-haired man with a wicked smirk spread across his face, gesturing widely as was his way. Crystalline orbs shifted to follow the movement of the pilot, all the while seeming to keep mind of Heero. Oren Linnux was most definitely a martial artist- his look as calmly fierce as Wufei's, though his personality seemed to lean towards the more stoic of the five Gundam pilots. His stance was loose and seemingly unprepared, but Heero could see the total concentration. Fluid and graceful, that was the very nature of the man before them. And that was the very reason why Duo was willing to take a chance.

The braided man suddenly shot forward, moving with a speed he did not seem to possess. It was not difficult to see that Linnux had predicted the attack, his body shifting even as Duo moved to close the gap between them. He side-stepped, glittering eyes watching calmly as the change caused Duo to bypass his form just by a fraction- enough time and space for an elbow to come crashing down between the already injured shoulder blades.

CRACK!

The force with which Duo's body hit the ground was enough to make an onlooker dizzy, and he settled to stillness, a small stream of blood taking residence upon the floor where his head rested. But Heero was there to pick up the slack, having calculated and observed his opponent. A fist swung wide and Linnux moved to counter, only to be caught unawares by a second punch aimed at the gut. A flash of movement, and both men were locked in a deadly stalemate, the strength of each threatening to overpower them both. But only one was wounded.

With a strange popping Heero felt his elbow give way to Oren's onslaught of power, his body instantly falling along with the failing limb. He saw the knee rise before her felt it, the opposing grip of his enemy still like iron upon his fists, and could do nothing to avoid it. All semblance of breath left his body on impact.

The next moments were a blur as he felt himself being lifted and thrown, a grunt the only sound that echoed from his throat as he felt the harsh impact of concrete and metal against his back and head. He heard the same disorienting crack that had rung true for Duo, and knew only that he was sprawled upon the floor, the enemy drawing closer. His mind willed his body to act, but his limbs vigorously refused. Reality protested his existence.

And then he heard the explosion of gunfire and saw the splash of red upon grey.

"Stay the fuck away from him." Duo? He couldn't tell anymore... His head swam, his body screaming with indignity. Everything hurt. No... _NO. Ignore the pain. Focus. Sit up. Sit UP_. But still the command failed. Voices sounded far away. Who was speaking? Were they speaking to him? Pain...

He was not sure how long he lay there, eyes half-opened to the artificial light of the shelter, but became distinctly aware when the voices came to a halt and one of the figures disappeared with one final, distinctive shout from somewhere in the distance. Footsteps approached from somewhere beyond his vision and cold hands reached down to hoist him into the air once more, this time to be slung over what he interpreted to be a shoulder. Whose shoulder? Did it matter?

"It's okay, buddy, I'll take care of it..."

Maybe it didn't matter...

* * *

The world moved even as he lay there, but he knew Heero was still fighting. They stood just within his peripheral vision, battling with strength and will, but it was Heero who crumbled first- most likely against his own choice. The knee to the dark-haired boy's stomach was enough to bring Duo to his knees, his hand scrabbling blindly for his gun as he tried to focus on his target. Linnux was wasting no time, and Duo cursed as the martial artist sent his opponent crashing into the closest wall, following after with a steely resolve.

Duo fired.

He saw the red spray before he realized he had truly hit his intended target, but his goal had been accomplished, and he spoke as he shakily regained his feet. "Stay the fuck away from him." The gun was still pointed in one trembling hand towards the pained form of Oren Linnux. The man was clutching a shoulder fiercely as blood flowed between calloused fingers.

"I see you've resorted to weapons, Maxwell." The tone with which Linnux spoke was disgusted and low, but Duo merely brushed it off with a shrug and a grin.

"I never claimed to be honorable. Who ever said Death played fair?"

"I see..." He made a motion as though to move, but the gun was there to meet him. Linnux frowned. "I would not push you luck, Gundam Pilot. You may have hit me once, but it won't happen again." There was a cold glaze of ice in those eyes. Duo knew he was not joking or boasting.

"Guess I'll just have to take a chance, won't I?" Duo's grin widened as he stepped forward, but the movement was unsteady, giving Linnux the time to make a move of his own. There was a second of deadly silence, and then suddenly the man had vaulted himself into the air and was off down the hall, slipping around a corner before Duo could fire another shot. "Hey!" He scowled after the retreating form, but did not make to follow. He would have to be satisfied with the fact that a bullet had injured the bastard.

Turning his attentions to Heero, he saw that the stoic man was still crumpled on the ground where he had landed, eyes half-lidded and glazed over. The braided pilot sighed, holstering the gun, and made his way carefully over to his fallen comrade. Crouching down, he gripped him by the torso and carefully lifted him up before slinging the bleeding form carefully over one shoulder. He stood and steadied himself as best he could before, slowly and surely, starting off down the broken hallways. For now, it was time to return to safety.

"It's okay, buddy, I'll take care of it..."

* * *

AN- Hey Minna-san! Hope you enjoyed the chappie. I'll stop being mean... Really! I swear! ....Sometime.... in the future............. Hm... But, yeah, don't have a lot to say today. I think I'll just go to bed now... Yeah, that sounds good. Night! 


	11. Invitation

Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing or any of its characters, quotes, scenes, memories, etc, etc. Happy now?

**Reviewer Comments**:

**La La La Anime Fan**- Ah, I see. Yes, I think a fedora would be absolutely awesome on Heero.

**Mikairi**- I, personally, always like barbeque better. ::cackle:: Glad you liked the chapter! I truthfully did not even realize that I had written in that comment about Wufei being short until everyone started pointing it out! lol. I was sitting at my desk going "Wufei's short? ....Where'd that come from? ....Oh, wow... ::dies::". But, now that I think about it, yeah, he is a shorty. hehe. Thats okay! Leave it to Lytol to point it out! Anyways, thanks for the review!

**Ulitheal**- Suspence is fun in good measure! I have a feel someone is going to attempt to strangle me by the end of this story, though, for my extreme love in using it.

**Elly**- Interesting reaction. hehe. Glad you think so!

**SonicBloom**- He's Heero. He'll be good. Just pissed! And isn't that the point?

**toni**- Why thankee! I'm happy that you think so! That means a lot.

**Wing**- The world may never know... And thank you! I'm always worried I go overboard with the character thoughts, etc. Glad to know it's appreciated!

**To Everyone**- Thanks for all the reviews! Enjoy Chapter 11!

* * *

Chapter 11

"Cronis is after Heero?" Quatre looked on in puzzlement at the former general, brow furrowed in an unusual frown.

"That's what I said, Kiddo. You three really need to listen better. Youth these days..." The man known as Lytol Schinzer shook his head with an unruly smirk, watching the three boys with unbridled amusement. It had been interesting to finally meet with the famed pilots. They were certainly something unique. "Ah well..." He turned with a sigh and started off down the road at a languid pace.

"Wait!" There was a rustle of clothing as Quatre attempted to get free of Trowa's grip, but the taller boy held fast to the troubled blond. Still, Schinzer stopped when he heard the voice, turning his head ever so slightly.

"Come to L5. I'm sure you know where my home is. My wife likes visitors..." And then he took off and disappeared into some miscellaneous alley, Wufei sprinting unsuccessfully after the quicksilver senior. He was gone without a trace by the time the Chinaman reached the alley.

The three men stood there uncertainly afterwards, simply staring at where Schinzer had stood moments ago. It was Trowa who finally broke the silence. "Do we go?"

"Are you insane, Barton? It's probably just another trap!" Wufei was still fuming from the meeting with the older man, not to mention the injuries that had been inflicted from the previous blast. Their target had been demolished in a matter of seconds and their enemy had escaped while leaving behind an invitation for obvious mayhem. And that was on top of the insults that had already been inflicted on the pride of Chang Wufei. Still, Quatre knew that his oriental companion would not rest until he had resolved this new battle with Schinzer.

"I don't think that's it. His demeanor was too carefree. I could sense kindness. He's not out to get us." Quatre was still staring off into the distance, almost forgetting the presence of his comrades as his thoughts drowned out reality. Une had said that she once knew Lytol Schinzer when he was a general, but her words had been spoken with the hint of sorrow. Schinzer himself was surely not a dishonorable person, but he was loyal to the point that he would follow the most despicable command. And yet it did not seem as though he wanted to be a part of Osiris. So why?

"We should go," Trowa said quietly, looking between the two other boys. Quatre nodded one in response and Wufei simply grunted in disapproval, but made no move to protest. They would go see Lytol Schinzer.

* * *

The trip took little time, Wufei piloting the shuttle while Trowa tended to Quatre's scraps and burns. The blond was lost in thought, moving only in order to flinch unexpectedly when a wound was too raw to manage gently. None of the former pilots spoke except to confirm directions and procedures. Wufei was obviously less than pleased to be both returning to his home colony and to be "visiting" the enemy.

They docked at a point that was within suitable walking distance of their destination and piled out, Trowa all but carrying Quatre as they went. The young Winner heir had yet to regain full use of his legs from the explosion, but was adamant that he accompany them to the Schinzer Residence. Still, no one spoke, and they approached the small suburban apartment building with unspoken suspicion and curiosity. It was Quatre who rang the doorbell, doing is best to stand alone as he waited for someone to emerge.

All three men were surprised when the door swung wide to reveal a softly smiling woman, brown hair swept back into a loose bun with numerous grey streaks and tendrils. Her skin was slightly tanned and strangely young in appearance, untouched by the harsh reality that old age liked to enforce. Sharp hazel eyes took in their appearance with silent wisdom and kindness, and a strong brow creased ever so gently as she realized they were injured. "Please come in, boys, and I apologize for the trouble my husband has caused. Don't be nervous now, no one will hurt you here..." She ushered them inside as a mother would her children, earning a resentful glare as she all but booted Wufei inside the door when he hesitated. Thankfully, he refrained from his normal cry of "Onna" even as the elderly woman commandeered his movements.

Inside, the woman wasted no time in settling them into a pristine sitting room, complete with American-styled couches and armchairs. She was like a torrent of quiet power as she fussed over the "boys," rushing in and out of the room with tea and ice packs and food. For their own part, the pilots said nothing, simply flabbergasted by the energy of the older woman. Finally, Quatre asked her to come sit with them, and she obeyed with a hesitant nod, settling into a comfortable-looking chair across from the couch they were all perched upon.

"I'm very sorry. I haven't had young men in the house for some years now. It seems one never forgets what it is to be a mother," she said, blushing and smiling. Faintly, Quatre knew that she must have been quite beautiful in the prime of her life. "Lytol seemed so strange when he came home, saying you were coming. I've heard much about you boys. For six years I've heard so much. It was you boys who brought us to where we are today. You... and that little girl... Really, no one meant for her to-"

"Marie." Four sets of eyes turned as the sound of Lytol Schinzer's voice wafted from the doorway, powerful and stern, but still kind with askance. The woman blushed fiercely and lowered her eyes as she caught sight of her husband watching them.

"Forgive me, love, I've said to much..."

"No, you must forgive me. It seems I've caused much pain to you these past years." He spoke with age and exhaustion, regret and acceptance. Striding to meet the smaller form tucked away within the armchair, the three Gundam pilots watched awkwardly as Schinzer bent to kiss his wife tenderly on the forehead, one arm reaching down to pull her into a hug. "You should go check on the dogs. I have to talk with them on my own." Marie simply nodded and stood, nodding again in respect towards her guests before swiftly exiting the small room.

The situation just seemed to be getting stranger and stranger...

Taking the place his wife had previously occupied, Lytol Schinzer surveyed the three young men sitting rigidly across the room from him, separated by a simple coffee table. "So..."

"Why did you ask us here?"

"I owe you kids an explanation- rather, I owe Treize an explanation, and you're the ones who can relay that explanation."

"Lady Une?"

"She'll understand. Something I owed them both, I guess. Something I should have paid back a long time ago." Brown eyes averted themselves to the floor momentarily and he heaved a sigh. "Anyways, it's just worse now than it was before. I don't think he'd ever forgive me after what I let happen. It was all planned out from the beginning so perfectly, but everything went wrong when _that_ man came into the equation. You must understand- Cronis is no one's ally, not mine, not Linnux, not Daye. He has his own agenda, and the little one is at the top of the list." Those eyes flickered upward once again to stare at all of them in turn, fierce and concerned and hatful all at once. Was this really their enemy?

"Why Relena?" Trowa asked passively, elbows balanced on his knees while his fists supported his chin, watching Schinzer closely. The former general could only shake his head.

"Never says. Some sort of sick infatuation, that's all I can make of it. I'm sure there's more to it, but I'll be damned if he'll ever tell me."

"Why do you stay?"

"Huh?" Brown focused on blue and Schinzer's brow furrowed slightly.

"You don't like what's happened. Why do you stay?" The question was bold, even for Quatre's straightforward demeanor, and it took a moment before another sigh was emitted from the great barrel-chest of the older man.

"That's a complicated question to answer... I suppose you could say that I want to right the wrongs I've committed. And the only way I can do that is if I stay where I am."

"...But that's not the real answer?"

"No, the real one is much longer. It's something you would be unable to comprehend. Let me simply say that it has much to do with Cronis himself and who exactly he is and was. There are certain things that not even a man of my age can explain after years of observation and contemplation. It seems at the end of the day I've become just another old fool." He laughed low and gently, but there was no humor there and his eyes did not change. He seemed to be considering them all again, as he first had on the streets of L2.

"Are you an enemy?" Wufei spoke without warning, black eyes glaring ahead at the strange elder. Schinzer laughed again, this time louder and with feeling.

"Am I an enemy? You tell me. Do you think you can trust me?"

"No."

"Then I suppose I am. I'm certainly not a comrade in your eyes." Schinzer stood abruptly and walked to the doorway, back turned and one hand poised on the frame. "Stay for lunch and I'll tell you boys a story. You'll like it, I promise. Marie makes fantastic soup and sandwiches, and she hasn't cooked for our own boys in years. You'll make her feel young again." The man chuckled to himself and he left the three dumbfounded pilots to sit alone in the room.

Finally, Wufei looked in bewilderment at Trowa. "Was he talking about liking the food or the story?" The tall pilot shrugged, and simply looked to Quatre for his opinion, surprised to find the blond rolling with silent laughter.

"What's so funny?"

* * *

AN- There's Ch. 11 for everyone! Hope you enjoyed it! Yeah, I know I'm still being cryptic, but that's just part of my charm! hehe. Really, I'm just trying to figure out how to make everything unfurl cleanly. I'm finally starting to get sort of semblence together of how I want things to turn out, so I'm more or less just playing around until I can get things straight. Thanks for reading and all the reviews!

-Sar


	12. Return

Disclaimer: I don't own GW. Just the world.

**Reviewer Comments**:

**Elly**- Yeah, I'm with you on that one. More and more, I like writing Schinzer's character. Yay for Lytol!

**Purdy**- Quatre is our sweetie. hehe. He's fun to write because he can be both strange and very logical, but still innocent in his own way. And the twists will deepen. Bwahahaha- ::hack cough:: Eh... yeah...

**Mikairi**- Creepy indeed. And you haven't even really met him yet. But you will, oh, you will...

**Stalker of Dreamz**- Bah, no worries. And, yeah, Linnux got his for hurting our Hee-chan. And he'll get more. No worries, indeed!

**me**- Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the story so much! And, yes, bombs in Cronis's coffee would be ideal, but we'll get down to that part eventually. ::evil cackling::

**peeps**- Thankee dearie! Look, update!

**SonicBloom**- Cronis most definately has a lot of issues, and I've only just scratched the surface of them. Of course, they're all sort of centered around our two kids there, but I'm having fun with certain ideas still, so we'll see what happens.

**Wing**- I'll be revealing more about Osiris probably in the next chapter, but I guarantee Schinzer's story will be interesting. Just you wait!

**To Everyone**- Thanks for all the reviews or even if you're just reading along with the story! You know it means a lot! Fwee! I'm having far too much fun with this story for my own good, I think. hehe. Enjoy the chapter and thanks again!

* * *

Chapter 12

It was early morning when Relena finally emerged from the living quarters of Heero Yuy, dressed comfortably in her own clothes for the first time since her return. Much to both her relief and regret, upon her arrival an order had gone out to begin to pull her belongings out of storage and her wardrobe had been delivered directly to Preventer HQ hours earlier. She had been reluctant to change out of the warm, over-sized shirt and trousers that were Heero's, but had eventually conceded when she reasoned that it was far more difficult to move when everything was falling off her body. Now, she was clothed in a pair of jeans and a loose, sleeveless button-up shirt that she had always been fond of. In fact, she was rather pleased to be back in her own clothing, though she refrained from wearing shoes.

Glancing about, she headed swiftly and confidently down the hallway, head held high and hair swept back in a clip, brushed and cleaned to her satisfaction. She felt alive this way, felt controlled and untouchable. It had been a long time since she had last felt that way, and she could not help but revert to her former mannerisms. After all, she was still- technically- the Vice Foreign Minister of the ESUN.

She could not help but smile at the dumbfounded expressions found on the faces of those she passed as she walked swiftly through the building, nodding this way and that in respect while onlookers gaped at the newly transformed Relena Darlian. It made everything feel right.

Asking directions along the way, Relena found herself poised anxiously outside the main communications center of the Preventer Headquarters. She stared at the door as though it were a challenge- some show of power she was forced to overcome. Perhaps it was because she had been locked away for so many years, but it felt somehow freeing to know she could simply walk through a doorway to command unspoken respect and attention.

Inhaling deeply, she prepared to open the doors and step through when she heard the voices beyond.

"...shelter. It was too late... explosion... lucky... unconscious, but alive. He'll recover." She could hear a jovial laugh that in faded in and out. Suddenly fear gripped her once-calm heart and she threw open the doors with what strength she had, racing in to stare wide-eyed at the enormous screen that was stretched across the far wall of the room. There, she could see the battered face of Duo staring back at her, smiling sheepishly and outright ignoring the blood that was flowing freely from a gash on his forehead. She blanched. "Hey! Princess!"

"Duo... Is he... is he...?" She found she couldn't bring herself to ask the question on her mind, and only faintly noticed that everyone in the room- including a very startled Lady Une and Milliardo- was watching her. In some part of her brain she knew it must have been an unusual sight to any who did not know her personally: the newly recovered Vice Foreign Minister bursting in and stammering on about some unknown man. But Duo seemed just as oblivious to the rest of the world as she, and his smile grew wider, a hand popping in to view to wave off her question as though it were about the weather.

"Nothing he hasn't handled before. No worries, I'll have him back in your arms in no time!" He winked mischievously, grinning all the while, but the look was suddenly broken by a shuddering cough, the picture before them momentarily covered by a hand and a smear of red. Faintly, they could hear Duo muttering to himself between gasps of air. "Bastard... got me good... must be internal..."

The hand slowly slipped away from the screen, leaving behind the sheen of blood that had covered his palm. Relena found herself looking on in horror at the condition of the braided pilot: dark circles under his eyes and blood covering a good portion of his visible skin, smile firm but lacking and tired. His hair was mussed and had yet to be resettled with the simple brush of hands through his uncanny bangs. Something had most certainly happened- something she realized she would not like in the least.

The fear in her heart must have reflected out upon her face, for the next moment Duo was looking at her with distress covering his features, sputtering explanations.

"O-oi! It's okay, Princess! It's really nothing! We're both fine, see? Alive and kicking! ...Well, not really _kicking_... but close enough! Just need some good rest and a couple of restraining straps to keep Heero in bed for more than an hour," he blurted, laughing gently at his final comment. Relena herself could not help but crack a soft smile; her expression relaxing if only by a small measure, but this seemed enough to calm the already flustered pilot.

"Maxwell, I want a report on what has occurred." It was only with dazed realization that Relena noticed her brother standing beside her at that moment. Glancing up, she could only think how startlingly powerful he looked, towering over her with a commanding, protective presence that uttering consumed him. She could see that, today, he was Zechs Merquise.

Duo's face became solemn and rigid.

"After the explosion, Preventer Yuy and I were confronted by Oren Linnux." Relena felt all the air leave her lungs, but listened intently as the pilot continued on. "I engaged him in hand-to-hand combat, but was overcome. Heero kept fighting while I was incapacitated, but being weakened by the explosion he was taken by surprise during the attack and knocked unconscious." Violet eyes flickered to glance at Relena, and then back to Zechs. "As a last resort, I managed to fire a shot that I am positive hit the enemy. He then escaped before I could capture and subdue. I thought it best to return to headquarters instead of pursuing the enemy."

"You were correct to return," Une broke in sternly, watching the screen and the injured pilot intently. "How far are you from HQ?"

"Docking now, if you'll give me clearance." Duo seemed relieved as he spoke, looking at something beyond the screen before redirecting his attention back to his superior.

"Permission granted. Proceed to docking bay."

That was all it took before Relena was out the door and down the hall, the surprised calls from the command center falling on deaf ears as she thought only of the precious cargo being delivered to the docking bay.

Her feet flew, and it was only by sheer will that her mind recalled the directions to the space harbor located beneath the Preventer buildings. Her body fervently ignored any sort of exhaustion she might have previously felt, and her mind became frustrated when the elevator did not yield to her speed. When finally she burst from the confining trap of metal and tile, she found herself staring hopefully out into the empty hangar, the rotating landing dock already whirring to life as it began to move.

As fast as she had been thrown into action, she was now bolted to the floor, simply watching in awe and fear and anticipation as the shuttle appeared through the floor and was locked into place. There was a moment's hesitation when nothing happened and no one moved, but it was broken as the door to the shuttle hissed and began to creep open. In a moment she was once again in motion, nearly vaulting down the steps in a fashion only a Gundam pilot could have taught her but with a grace that only came from being in politics. Her eyes never left the door, and she soon saw Duo standing there, one hand held up in hello as he grinned stupidly from the doorway, a body slung carefully over one shoulder.

She slowed her pace as she approached the shuttle, stepping forward to meet Duo as he made his way down the steps of the shuttle. Behind her she could hear the rush of medics as they entered to tend to the injured pilots, but all she could see was Duo and the man resting over his shoulder.

Silently he leaned towards her until Heero was slumped in his arms and Relena stepped forward tentatively to retrieve the limp body of the boy, pulling him to her and sinking to the ground in order to allow him to rest gently against her. At that moment Duo stumbled forward, only to be caught by the medics who were now surrounding them. There was a rush of voices and shouts and people trying to do too many things at once, but she ignored it all as she gripped the dark-haired man to her breast, resting her cheek against that mop of unruly hair, feeling his breath against her collar bone. It was only when they tried to take him from her that she reacted, glaring with a fierceness that could rival the man in her arms and holding ever tighter to him until she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and looked to find Noin standing there, shaking her head. Reluctantly, she released the boy from her protection and allowed the doctors carrying him gently away, watching all the while from her spot on the ground.

"Come on, Miss Relena, we'll go wait for him upstairs in the infirmary." She nodded numbly and stood mechanically, following the lead of the older woman as they returned to the elevator and ascended the building.

All there was left was to wait.

* * *

"Ow! Babe!"

"Hold still! It's your own fault if it hurts, you're the one who's always tagging along on Heero's little 'adventures'!" Hilde fumed as she stood sandwiched between Duo's knees, a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol held in one hand while the other brushed his bangs away from his head in order for her to clean the fine gash that now marred his skin. Duo, of course, was squirming like a two year old who had scraped his knee, complaining loudly every time she used the cloth. Currently, he was pouting down at her from his perch on the examination table, violet eyes dulled with exhaustion and dismay at his current treatment.

"Aww, c'mon, Hilde. I'm an injured man, and you're bein' so mean! Lighten up, babe!" More fidgeting and a bigger pout. In reply, she jabbed the cloth at a particularly tender spot, causing him to yelp in surprise. "Baaabbbeee!"

"One more word, Duo Maxwell, and I swear I'll make sure you never speak again!" She continued working only to feel his hand lift her chin, her gaze shifting to look him in the eye. Prepared to bite out another threat, she blinked in confusion when she saw the mischievous smile spread across those battered and scorched lips.

"Really now? Care to show me?"

Realizing the intent of his words, her face lit like a Christmas tree and she made to pull away from him, only to feel his knees clamp securely around her waist. "D-duo!" But he was already upon her, kissing her lightly and drawing her closer. Against her better judgement, she obeyed, her hands dropping to his shoulders and snaking around his neck.

Then, suddenly:

"OW! My braid!"

"That'll teach you to be lecherous jerk! Now hold still, and don't you _dare_ try that again!"

"But, Hilde!"

"One more word, Duo..."

She could almost sense his grin.

"So how long should I wait before I do it again?"

The entirety of the fifth floor of Preventer's Headquarters was startled by a loud, girlish scream.

* * *

He woke to feel something cool and smooth brush across his forehead, opening his eyes to look around with abnormally blurred vision. It was dark, but he could make out the traces of a figure leaning over him, a hand grazing his face with a delicate touch, brushing about bits of hair. Opening his eyes further, he reached up to grasp the hand and hold it steady, causing the figure to gasp in surprise.

"Relena?"

He felt groggy and spent, blinking fiercely to unsuccessfully try and clear his vision while his head swam with the pain of reality and injury. Frowning, he attempted to sit up, only to be pushed back down gently by that free hand he was not holding.

"Shh... You need to rest. They said you have a concussion from where you hit the wall. Don't worry about anything. Just... just sleep... Heero..."

"Hn. I can't do that. Linnux got away, I have to-"

"No! You're not going anywhere else! I won't let you!" He felt her weight press against him even as he moved to sit up again, forcing himself to focus on her features and ignore the fire that laced through his body with every shift or turn of a muscle. He was met with the dull sight of honey-blond hair against his own tanned skin, as well as a mess of white bandages covering various parts of his torso. Everything hurt more with the sight, especially his head, but he pushed it aside as he watched her try to bury her face against his chest.

"Relena..."

"I believe in you, Heero, really I do, but I can't lose you. Not again. Not for a day, not for a moment. I waited three years to see you again, and I won't wait a minute longer for you to put yourself in danger for my sake. I _can't_ do that." Surprise colored his eyes an even deeper shade of blue. Why was she saying these things? Lose him? Of course she wouldn't 'lose him', he had promised to always protect her. So why...?

"I'm not going anywhere."

He spoke the words before he realized what he was saying, but he felt her tense and looked on intently as she finally moved away to look at him eye-to-eye.

"You mean that?"

He frowned instinctively. "Don't misunderstand, Relena, I will make them pay for what they did to you. But, for now, I'll stay. Next time I won't be beaten." It was her turn to frown, but she nodded in submission nevertheless and returned to using him as her personal pillow.

"I suppose asking you to stay forever isn't an option?"

"Hn."

"Then... can I ask for an hour? Just for today. Just for now. Is that okay?"

"...Hn."

His grip around her hand tightened and his other arm slid unbidden around her waist, causing him to mentally berate himself. What effect was it that she had over him anyways? Perhaps he would never know...

"Heero?"

"Hn?"

"Why do you always seem to pass out in my arms?"

"...That's not funny."

But her laughter was already filling the room, and he could only think how good it felt to hear her laugh again.

* * *

AN: Yeah, a bit sappy, but this is just one of those filler-but-need-to-do-'em sort of chapters. Plus I'm a hopeless romantic who needs to be shot for her obsession. Don't mind me! Heero or not, I think any guy would unconsciously want to hold the girl he loves after three years of not seeing or hearing her. Of course, Heero is as oblivious as he always was and doesn't quite get the concept of "love" just yet. Or at least the concept of him loving Relena, or her loving him back. Right now, he's just doing what Odin taught him: following his emotions.

More on Quatre and the boys next chapter, some insight into Osiris, and Schinzer starts to tell them a tale. Probably a bit more (or less) understanding towards Cronis, and maybe even an introduction to Daye.

Thanks for all your support!

-Sar


	13. Storyteller

Disclaimer: GW isn't mine!

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Stalker Of Dreamz**- Yeah, alcohol sucks. But that'll just teach Duo not to go running off with Heero all the time! ...Okay, so he'll still do it, but that's okay...

**Purdy**- Thankee! I'm glad you thought so! I try, really I do!

**sydney**- Hopeless romantics can be a wonderful thing!

**Kiyoko**- They'll get theirs, no worries!

**DogDemonK9**- Well, I didn't make it for Thanksgiving, but I'm glad you liked the chapter!

**me**- O.o

**SonicBloom**- Hehe, I think my writing speed got momentarily jinxed. lol. But I'm back! Yay for pairings!

**MissAnnThropy2600**- Glad to hear it! Thanks for the support and enthusiasm!

**To Everyone**- Thanks to all who read, and also to **Ulitheal, Tsubasa No Kami, mT96, and Mikairi**! I love hearing from you guys and just knowing people are enjoying the story! Sorry about the delay, had computer issues over Thanksgiving break, but I'm back at school and all computer-ized again! . Enjoy Chapter 13!

* * *

Chapter 13

If not for the constant, but gentle fussing of Marie Schinzer, all three boys would have felt sorely misplaced while sitting at the small kitchen table, a steaming bowl of soup and a sandwich of his own choosing (much to Quatre's protests, though even he could not dissuade a determined mother). But, strangely, the calm rantings of the woman seemed to soothe the hearts of all four men, and they were soon discussing economics and history of both Earth and the colonies, Marie working her way around them and adding her own opinions when she felt the urge.

The married couple seemed both free speaking and rigid around each other, Marie boldly stating her own opinions before apologizing to her husband while Lytol would either laugh or nod his thanks. Either way, both were outspoken in a way only the wise and elderly could be, and they encouraged their guests to act in the same manner until Wufei was caught up in an argument with both over the ability of the colonies to prosper without the aid and opposition of the Earth Sphere. By the time they had finished eating, Lytol was crying with laughter at the red-faced Chinaman while Marie was trying her best to quell the boy's anger with questions about Chinese culture.

"Really now, I always wondered about that clothing- it's quite beautiful, you know. I once tried to mimic the make when I was a young woman, but it came nothing close to the actual product," she recalled with a small frown of dismay. Wufei only seemed to grow prouder of his heritage.

"The secrets of our craft are thousands of years old, the knowledge passed down through the generations. Though there are machines now that can easily produce the fabric and sew the garments, they still pale in comparison to those that are hand-made in the Chinese tradition." To show the difference, he unzipped his Preventer jacket to reveal the familiar deep blue of his most prized shirt, offering the fabric to the woman so that she could touch it. She did so and could only gaze longingly at it, fingers running carefully over the fine mesh.

"I believe the Chinese shall always amaze me…" She smiled then at him and released the shirt, turning away in order to clear the table. Instinctively, Quatre rose to help her and together they cleared and washed the dishes, the other three settling into silence beneath the sound of running water.

It was only when the two had returned that the room turned serious.

"So what story did you wish to tell us?" It was Trowa who spoke, looking around at the faces sitting at the table. Schinzer sighed.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning, long before I came into the picture. The men you knew as Treize Khushrenada and Zechs Merquise were both students at a prestigious military academy- the best there was in their time. If you attended that academy, you knew of both the Lightning Count and Treize. They were the politician and the soldier- a deadly and perfect combination, as I'm sure you've seen through your own two friends. Like with the princess and her soldier, one would have had to be blind to not notice or know of the two boys.

"It was because of this and the rise of Oz that the first version of Osiris was erected. Many men were jealous of the fame and skill these two men possessed, and many more all but worshipped the land they walked on- especially Treize. When they both appeared at the forefront of the Oz organization as part of the Specials, it was like a catalyst for many of the men who had been envious of the two; many joined Oz for the chance to fight alongside them while others went looking for their own type of revolution. Few, if any, of those fools realized what it was that Treize and Zechs were actually fighting for. Sometimes, I wonder if even _they_ realized it." He shook his head, his brow creasing lightly in a thoughtful frown.

"Anyways, Osiris was a result of the newly forming war, many young and old soldiers bonding together to oppose the growing strength and hostility of the colonies. Factions sprung up all over, and many were stationed even in the colonies themselves to create havoc. Not surprisingly, they looked up to the bravery and daring of Treize and Zechs.

"It wasn't so much a rebel organization at the time as a ragtag group of vigilantes, but they became powerful, and easily corrupt, and what started out as a good-natured attempt by good men to protect the Earth soon turned into a naive army with an insatiable bloodlust. It was only through a massive battle involving both the Specials and colonial forces that they were snuffed out the first time, or surely a great deal more blood would have been shed before the end of the war. Of course, this all happened just about the time you boys appeared, but the bitterness behind Osiris' defeat lingered in the hearts of many people. In particular, those left over from Osiris went mad with hatred for the "betrayal" they believed was committed when Treize's group of soldiers helped to defeat them. What they didn't know was that the Earth Sphere had begun to fear them and had specifically ordered their ruin. Either way, many began to believe that Treize was the one who was being manipulated and so the hatred for the colonies only grew and, as time passed, the hatred for you boys."

"For us?" Quatre frowned at the statement, puzzled. Lytol merely nodded in confirmation.

"Many people believed your arrival on Earth was the cause for the sudden change in Oz. Treize became an antagonist in the war and the situation grew more dire by the day as word of Gundams spread. In particular, pilot 01 was a prime target."

"Heero." Uncharacteristically, Trowa frowned.

"Exactly. 'Public Enemy Number One,' as the Americans might say."

"But what does all this have to do with the kidnapping of Miss Relena?" Quatre was still puzzling over the strange story Schinzer was unraveling, his eyes sharp and intelligent beneath the artificial sunlight streaming through the windows. Lytol could not help but grin at the blond, shrugging all the while.

"I'd've thought it'd be obvious to you of all people." There was a moment of contemplative silence before knowledge dawned on the bright eyes of the Winner Heir, eyebrows shooting upwards in surprise.

"You mean…"

"What else? What better way to break down the Perfect Soldier than to exploit his only weakness? As I said before, you'd have to be blind not to see what that girl does to him, and we all know that by the end of the war the Gundams and their pilots were no one's secret any longer. Especially after the Mariemeia incident." The aging general smiled ruefully. "That'd boy would go to hell and back for our lovely princess, and that's the one fact he refuses to hide- which just goes to show how stupid love makes men." He snorted derisively, knowingly, reaching up to pat his wife's hand endearingly as she grinned down at him.

Still, Quatre went on with his puzzling. "But, if it was Heero they were after, why wait so long? And why not lure him into a trap instead of letting him think Miss Relena dead?" The questions only made Schinzer grin like a child.

"THAT, my boy, is the million dollar question! You see, as I said before, the original Osiris fell at the hands of the colonies and the Specials, causing hatred among many civilians, but it was the _revival_ of the faction that brought the hatred to fruition. Specifically, it was the appearance of Cronis that caused the events of the present and three years ago." It was like a tale told in front of a bonfire, Schinzer's face brightening with excitement at every word he spoke, but that enthusiasm was quickly dashed as a sudden, harsh knocking sounded from down the hallway.

All five pairs of eyes shot up at once to either glare and blink at the hidden doorway in the other room, Marie being the only one to move in response. None of the men dared move a muscle, the very breath catching in each throat.

When Marie Schinzer returned to her kitchen, it was with a pale face and wide eyes that glanced worriedly between her husband and her guests. When she spoke, it was a delicate, urgently whisper. "Quickly now, there's no time, you can go out through the stairwell in the cellar. He mustn't see you here. Lytol, go tend to him before he bleeds himself to death." And then there was a flurry of motion as the pilots wordlessly followed the woman's stern orders, all the while exchanging grim glances with one another. As they slipped into the basement, Quatre could hear the loud greeting of Lytol Schinzer to the strained presence of a softer, deadlier voice. In a moment much greater than an afterthought, Quatre branded the voice into his memory for later uses.

* * *

"Well, look what the cat dragged in! Get your ass kicked by those two kids, eh?" The quiet, bleeding man in Lytol Schinzer's doorway considered him expressionlessly before shrugging and doing his best to stagger past towards the kitchen. 

"I was… disappointed. It was luck that saved them." Schinzer grinned heartily at the response, following the man known as Oren Linnux without so much as a gesture of assistance. The younger man seemed not to notice as it was, fiercely gripping his injured shoulder as blood coursed over his fingers, eyes locked on his destination. Still, Lytol knew the disappointment did not lie solely with the failed battle between Linnux and the Gundam pilots. Both men knew better than that.

"How many explosives?"

"More than I like. Cronis would sooner tear out his own hair than let Yuy go unscathed. He was… powerful… even while injured. In the end, his body betrayed him and comrade felt the need to resort to weaponry." Schinzer snorted and quirked an eyebrow at his own "comrade."

"How many reasons did you give him until he felt the need?"

Pausing, the petite Russian mulled over the question and his memories before offering the faintest of grins over his shoulder. "Elbow to the back, two concussions, bruised tendons, possible cracked vertebrae, and a knee to the gut. Not to mention Cronis's little 'present'." Schinzer's only response was another snort and an amused chuckle from deep in his chest.

They fell to silence then as Linnux slowly made his way into the kitchen and settled into one of the chairs, leaning back with a pained groan as Schinzer disappeared off with a mutter about finding bandages and surgical thread. Alone, he was allowed to take in the peaceful environment of the cozy little apartment and gaze out the windows where noonday sunlight was streaming inwards.

It had been a most peculiar battle with the pilots, however short. Cronis had sent him with a one-sentence command: "make him suffer," and then shut off all communications, as was his way. Zephyr Cronis trusted no one, as they had all discovered bit by bit over the few years they had known the shadowed leader of Osiris. He appeared at will and disappeared just as abruptly, never leaving a trace of where he had been or where he was going. If not for the occasion meetings face-to-face, Oren was sure he would have thought the man a ghost long ago.

By all human standards, Zephyr Cronis did not exist.

What did make the man real was his fierce loathing of the boy known as Heero Yuy- a trait which was undeniable and, furthermore, undisguised. That such a broad and simple command could be his only requirement of a mission was proof enough. What was puzzling was Yuy's complete lack of attachment to Cronis. In no way had any member of Osiris ever found a link between the two men, muchless one that could merit such unadulterated feelings from Cronis. By all means, the leader of Osiris was an enigma to all.

"Ah! Here we are!" Lytol reappeared with a thick role of gauze, bandages, and other surgical instruments tucked beneath his arm, grinning like an idiot- or rather, like the Maxwell boy often found with Yuy. The comparison was close enough. "You'd best not get too much blood on the furniture, or Marie'll have our heads! …Well, my head to be exact…" He laughed heartily and settled beside the blue-eyed man, preparing the stitches and bandages, all the while smiling. His eyes, however, were stony and sober- a factor which Oren did not fail to notice.

"And how did your mission fare? I see you returned unscathed."

The statement was bold, even between the two ranking officers of Osiris, but Schinzer seemed to take no offense or notice, his face turning as solemn as his gaze as he began to work. It was a time before he responded.

"…I accomplished what I set out to do…"

Linnux merely grunted in acknowledgement and allowed the other to finish his work.

* * *

AN: Again, sorry for the delay! I should be back to regular weekly updates at least for the next three weeks. Thanks for you patience, everyone, and I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

-Sar


	14. Nightmare and Reprieve

Disclaimer: I don't own GW.

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Elly**- I try to make the chapters as long as I can, but when I'm done, I'm done. It would just make the story bad to try to force out more when I don't believe there should be. Sorry about that.

**SonicBloom**- I aim to misdirect. You'll see.

**me-** Man, people like blowing and smashing Cronis... Hell to think what'll happen after THIS chapter... Oh dear...

**Camigwen**- Aww, thankee!

**DogDemonK9**- Here's your 1xR update... I think you'll like this one...

**mT96**- Thankee!

**Mikairi**- Yeah, the whole "Omae o korosu" thing to everyone he meets would put a FEW people off, I'd think. Poor boy, he just wanted to save the world! hehe.

**Wing**- All will be revealed in due time... Though I'm finally getting around to that revealing!

**To Everyone**- Thanks to everyone who commented/read! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that this one isn't too bad! Chapter 14 is a product of partial writer's block, partial not knowing what to do with the story, and partial.... well... just stuff.... So, I hope it's okay! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 14

_She followed the men down the hallway silently, hair brushed back out of her face as best she could manage, head held high and eyes locked on the doorway that loomed ahead. She could feel the eyes on her back from the soldiers that trailed behind, admiring their handiwork on the fine curve of her body: blacks and blues and purples that could be seen on her face and through the sheer fabric of the clothing that had been provided to her. She frowned defiantly at the thought. Beatings or not, she would not let them win this battle of wills. _

_They stopped while one of the leading officers knocked on the door, waiting until a muffled voice answered from within to enter. They did, and she found herself in plush private quarters- obviously those of a high-class officer of the rebel organization by the fine Oakwood tables and chairs that adorned the room, complete with silk table clothes and leather cushions, as well as an array of paintings and photographs that filled the walls. Her thoughts were confirmed when she saw the man sitting across the room in a high-backed leather burgundy chair. He stood as they entered, and her heart froze in her chest as prisoner and captor first looked upon each other. _

_Dark grey eyes stared out at her from beneath ebony strands, glinting so sharply beneath the light that they looked almost silver. The hair itself was long and silken- hair that would make normal women jealous-, pulled back neatly into a ponytail that hung down at a thick, masculine neck. He wore a button-up shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a pair of dark slacks similar to those worn by Preventers, with boots that shined like they had just been polished. But it was his expression that turned her blood cold: an icy, dead gaze that stared through her like daggers even as a smile curled upon unkind lips. He was powerful in body and mind, it was easy to see, and the grimacing smile was enough to tell her that he was well aware of his power. Currently, his power over her._

"_Miss Darlian… I see you have finally managed to grace me with your presence." The voice was monotone and deep, and she found herself momentarily reminded of another expressionless man, but the enchantment that she might have found was lost by the complete lack of caring in those calm tones. Unlike the boy she knew so well, there was no passion or concern to be found beneath those layers of ice. This man was dead. _

"_Excuse me, but men like you can never be graced by anything, not even the hand of God," she heard herself bite out, bitter from two years of starvation and maltreatment. That cruel smile only widened, and she watched as he waved the soldiers away. _

_Once the door had closed behind them, he approached her carefully- like a panther stalking its prey in the brush. She could hear the chuckle forming low in his chest. _

_He circled her once without a word, eyes roaming where they should not while she stood stiffly in place, focusing on an old tapestry at the back of the room. When he stopped, he was poised directly behind her, and she flinched away when she felt the brush of a hand against her arm. Eyes narrowed as she flung herself away from his touch. "What do you think you're doing?" But he was already descending again, grabbing her roughly by her arm until they were face-to-face. The smile was gone. _

"_I don't believe you realize the situation you are in, _Miss Darlian_. I've waited a long time to see you here." Those eyes bore into her, his hand like a furnace on her arm. She wanted to scream, struggle, hit him where it counted the most, but she found herself paralyzed. Who was this man? _

_Shooting him as deadly a glare as she could muster- which was quite something, considering all the time she had spent with her own blue-eyed, deadly soldier- she stood her ground beneath his grip, using her skills as a politician to mask any trace of fear. She eyed him almost casually. "Whatever it is that you want from me, I believe you'll be sadly disappointed. I dare say you were better off when I was just another prisoner on Death Row." _

"_Dare you?" The smile had returned, but this time it was more a cruel smirk of triumph._

_Without warning he threw her away from himself so that she stumbled back and abruptly landed on the soft plush of the carpet beneath their feet. He watched her from across the room as she stood almost immediately, frowning fiercely at her captor. She would not be pushed around. _

"_If we are done here, I would like to be returned to my cell." _

_He laughed, low and malicious. The sound froze her blood and his eyes upon her made her feel like a deer in headlights. He approached once again, but this time with deliberation, stopping to consider her before a hand shot out suddenly and caught her throat, wrestling her down to the carpet once again. Fear shot through her and she began to struggle, but found herself hopelessly pinned. _

_It was all clear to her now, and his words proved it. _

"_I already have what I want." _

Oh Gods… Heero!

* * *

"Heero!" Relena bolted upright in the bed, heart racing in her chest while unbidden tears streamed down her cheeks. Her body trembled, as it never had before. Looking around, she saw herself tucked safely away in Heero's bed, in Heero's room. But no Heero. The room suddenly felt deathly cold to her.

She pulled her legs from beneath the covers and stood with a shuddering gasp, a hand coming up to clench at the gentle fabric above her heart as it pounded in her chest. Not knowing what else to do, she simply retreated to the far wall and rested her forehead against it in an attempt to calm herself, breathing harshly and sweating despite the chill about her body.

When she felt the hand clamp down on her shoulder she jumped as though burned, whirling viciously towards her "attacker" while throwing her back against the wall at the same time. It was only when she saw Heero standing before her that Relena dropped her guard, the tears falling quicker and harder with each passing moment. She felt her jaw work for an explanation, but nothing would come, and in defeat the despairing princess turned her eyes to the floor, ashamed and enraged at both the act and the dream.

"Relena…" She was surprised when she felt arms pull her forward and wrap around her, drawing her close. Was he… was he trying to comfort her? Attempting to pull away, she found he would not allow it, and a small, bitter smile formed on her lips at the gesture. The tears came to a halt, the trembling slowed and then stopped altogether, and she melted against him as though she were liquid, losing all thoughts of just what she was doing. It did not matter anymore. He was protecting her, just like he always promised, and that was enough. It was always enough.

The dream was washed away as she allowed herself to relax and for time to pass. She did not know how long they stood together. Somehow, he managed to make her lose all track of time, clearing her mind of all that troubled her if even for a moment. But as her mind focused on the moment, embarrassment flooded her.

She felt warm there, tucked safely and securely against his chest, but a chill that ran through her spine- her mind acutely aware of their close proximity- disrupted the warmth. She could feel his breath on her neck, his heart beating steadily against his chest while hers ran a violent race. She did not dare raise her head from its pillowed position against his shoulder, both afraid and excited over what she might find, but he soon remedied that as she felt him draw back, a finger reaching up to gently lift her chin.

She was met fleetingly with a sea of cloudy, storm-washed blue, her lips parting slightly to utter the only word that was running through her mind.

"Heero…"

The sound of her voice startled her into reality, suddenly realizing her position. Relena snapped from her reverie and slipped, alarmed, from his arms and tried to walk away. Unfortunately for her, the pilot was faster and sharper, and had managed to capture her chin in his hand once again. To her surprise, his lips followed.

It was fire and ice water all at once, all over her body. She could only stand in shock as she felt his other arm snake around her waist and pull her against his chest, his lips warm and gentle, kind and reassuring. It was only through the greatest of dazes that she realized her body was responding against her better judgment, and she closed her eyes purely out of habit, arms reaching hesitantly for the dark-haired boy- no, man- that held her so fiercely. The feeling was bliss.

When he finally pulled back she was left breathless and stunned, staring at him. She tried his name again, tasting it in her mouth and on her very being. "Heero…"

"I'm taking you home today."

She blinked in confusion. Home?

"Une sent word that your butler has already been informed of your rescue and is prepared for your return. Don't worry, the house has been well cared for over the past three years and is still in your name. All of your belongings have been returned and it should be the way you remember it." He looked at her with that normal, expressionless gaze, studying her as no one could. She was dumbfounded, to say the least.

"…You mean I still have my house?" He nodded. She smiled. There was yet another moment of comfortable silence as she could only think of all that was suddenly going right.

Truthfully, she had not even thought of her house since her return, too caught up in all that had happened to even consider the possibility that she might be deprived of the most basic of requirements after three years. She frowned, then, still looking at him. "What about my job?"

"I suppose it's yours, if you wanted. No one ever tried to take the position after your disappearance." Her heart fluttered, missed a beat. She… she was still the Vice Foreign Minister? The shock must have registered on her face, for she was sure she saw the hint of an amused smile on his face and in those eyes. Then her own smile broke out once again and she laughed, short and softly. It was all a dream, wasn't it? She would wake up any minute and be back in that dirty cell, alone and abused. Right?

"Heero?"

"Hn?"

"Are you real? Am I dreaming? Please tell me I'm not…" She looked at him hopefully and this time she was sure she saw that smile- there and gone again in a blink.

"You're not dreaming."

"…Heero?"

"Hn?"

"…Kiss me again." It was not a question.

"Hn." Who was he to deny a princess?

* * *

At the other end of the Preventer's building, a floor below, Zechs Merquise stood in front of one of the large COM screens, staring eye-to-eye with the blurred, battered, and burned face of Quatre Raberba Winner. Lady Une stood beside him and Sally Po just behind as they finally listened to the reports of what the three pilots had encountered on L2. Zechs was not pleased.

"If Cronis is after Yuy, why did he capture Relena?" The blond shook his head.

"I don't know. I asked the same question, but Linnux came before Lytol could answer the question."

"I see… Do you think we can trust his story?" Zechs knew better than to ignore the intuition of the former Sandrock pilot. As any of them knew, the boy had a six sense for the emotions and honesty of people. Some even dared to call Quatre an empath, though the Winner heir would kindly laugh off the accusation with a smile. Zechs simply believed that the pilot was simply more attune to reading people's eyes and words.

"In all honesty, I don't see why he'd lie, and I never felt threatened or deceived. In fact, he was somewhat eager to divulge the story. I wonder if perhaps he's in deeper than we thought. …Maybe Miss Relena might know something?" Quatre frowned as he answered, but Zechs found him to be -as always- right.

"Yes, maybe. Yuy is supposed to bring her back to her house today. He actually volunteered for it." He did not miss the smile that lighted Quatre's face at the mention of Heero and Relena. The blond had always been a fan of the couple, pushing them gently towards each other when Maxwell had not been all but shoving. Zechs scowled inwardly, but said nothing.

The door opened at that moment and Duo walked in with Hilde, grinning and pestering the red-faced, flustered girl. As the braided man walked closer to the former White Fang leader, he glanced up at the screen and stopped with a surprised expression. "Yo, Q-man, how big was the bus that hit you?"

Quatre blinked. "Wha- Oh! You mean my face…" To everyone's amusement, the blond blushed and turned his face away from the screen. Distantly, they could all hear another voice behind the boy.

"Is that Maxwell? Ask him what the hell he and Yuy have been doing all day!" Duo frowned as he heard the comment and finished his advance towards the COM screen, all but pushing aside an amused Une and rather irritated Zechs.

"Hey! We were working. It was Heero's fault for getting us blown up! And then was met Linnux, and it all went to hell from there…" The Deathscythe pilot was almost pouting by this time, tendering rubbing at his own, more conspicuous wounds- particularly the bandage that adorned his forehead.

The red-faced Chinaman shoved Quatre from view, "Speak sense, Maxwell!"

"Yo, Wu-man! You look just as bad as Quatre! Did the bus hit you too?"

"MAXWELL!"

Zechs sighed and retreated from the room at that point, head in hands as he decided to go searching for his sister.

* * *

AN: It's late and I'm tired, but here's the chapter. . A bit awkward, I must admit, and sorry about that, but I hope you enjoyed it!

-Sar


	15. Reflection and Fear

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or any of it's charries. I can't say the same for my Heero Plushie.

**Reviewer Comments:**

**Steph**- Actually, it's not even so much that's she's comfortable about him kissing her, but more that she's still a bit in shock with a large amount of trust for him. She's disoriented from everything still, but she knows that she can count on him to protect her- even against himself, if need ever came about. And, yes, we all wish there were guys like Heero in the world. ::swoon:: lol.

**DragonLadyRelena**- O.o Gomen ne...

**Stalker of Dreamz**- lol. Glad you're so enthused! hehe. Though I don't think I've ever heard Cronis described quite like that before...

**me**- "intense pathos" lol. I like that. And I think our Hee-chan is wise enough to know his limits when she's still in a fragile state, though you never know. Men WILL be men... We'll see. ::cackle::

**Mikairi**- Damn those buses! And I do believe the pinnacle of Duo's personality is summed up in her nicknames for people.

**Purdy**- Aww, thankee! To answer your question, she was blushing because of Duo's earlier pestering from chapter 12 (I think), and also just his current pestering. It's his job to get her flustered and then soothe it all away. hehe.

**SonicBloom**- Eh, Hee-chan's a big boy. If he can reset the bone is his leg and then run off in Wing, I'm sure he can get out of bed and kiss the girl.

**Morrighan of Crimson and Sable**- Yeah, Hee-chan's a little dense sometimes, but for once he's not doing too bad.

(Stopping here on comments because it's late and I'm tired. I'll finish with them tomorrow!)

**To Everyone**- SORRY, SORRY,** SORRY** for the GIANT delay! I had no computer access through the entire break. Thanks SO MUCH for everyone's patience, I really appreciate it. The chapter is a little iffy since I'm having writer's block on where to go with the story, but I'll do my best to get through it. Thanks for your loyalty! It means a lot! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 15

Much to his surprise and irritation, a red-faced and flustered Relena answered the door to Heero Yuy's quarters. She blushed furiously as she saw her brother standing before her, and groped haphazardly for an explanation that would not come. Instead, she simply leaned against the door and attempted to regain her compose. Beyond, he could see the stoic pilot sit up in his bed and eye the tall man from across the room. A challenge passed silently between them before Relena spoke.

"I don't want you bothering Heero about Osiris right now. He needs to rest." She was frowning like a concerned mother, one hand on her hip with a pout on her kiss-swollen lips. The very sight made Zechs irate, and if not for the very presence of his sister the older man was sure he would have jumped the boy then and there and beaten him senseless… or worse.

"Actually, I came to talk to you." She blinked in surprise.

"Me?"

He nodded, then sighed as her confusion persisted. "Quatre suggested you might be helpful on matters concerning Osiris." All semblance of emotion dropped from her features at the mention of the organization that had kidnapped her, her eyes dulling to a washed-out indigo. Out of the corner of his peripheral vision, Zechs could see the pilot rising from the bed- deadly intent brewing in those eyes while clenched fists moved to his sides. In the back of his mind, the Lightning Count wished the boy would throw a punch, if only to give Zechs an excuse to 'defend' himself. Unfortunately, both men knew it would never come to that.

"I… I can't help you, Milliardo." He looked down at his sister, startled. She was watching him as well, but with a fierce gaze that she could have only learned from himself and the soldier behind her. It was the look of a caged animal- a desperate, definite, strong gaze that warned of hostility and deep-set pain. He had hoped to never see that look in her eyes.

"Relena-"

"That's _final_. You'll have to ask someone else." And with that she turned away from the door and brushed pasted the dark-haired pilot. Heero, on the other hand, was still standing where he had stopped, glaring his signature glare at Zechs. Quietly, he approached the door and stepped out into the hallway, closing it behind him like the older brother Milliardo Peacecraft was supposed to be.

Ready to deck the arrogant soldier, Zechs was caught off guard by his next words.

"What do you need to know?"

* * *

"Maxwell! MAXWELL!"

Duo grinned like a maniac as he turned away from the COM screen, throwing the infuriated Asian a brisk, finger-y wave. By this time Sally Po was outright laughing off to one side, earning furious glares from her lover, while Lady Une was stifling her own laughter at the antics between the two boys. It was no secret that no one could get under Chang Wufei's skin like Duo Maxwell.

With a flourish of hair and hands, he left the room and started down the hallway, a giggling Hilde trailing behind with arms furiously hugging her trembling stomach. For once, she had refrained from chastising him over his constant teasing of Wufei, content to enjoy the laughter they all -even Wufei, in his own brusque, disgruntled manner- shared in those moments. It had been some time since they had all truly enjoyed a good laugh together, and the resurfacing of Relena had seemed to bring about a choice occasion for a revival. …Even if both the princess and her soldier were off brooding somewhere together at the same time.

He stopped as thoughts of the two surfaced, glancing back at Hilde. In response, she stopped as well, smiling joyfully while trying to regain her composure.

Since the disappearance and return of Relena Darlian, he had never given much thought to the situation shared between the Vice Foreign Minister and the Perfect Soldier. It had always simply been the truth of things, the joy of everyone else. He had watched them grow, both together and apart, during the war between Earth and the Colonies. He had seen the relationship that had flourished somewhat awkwardly between the two, all the way up to the moment Relena had disappeared, and he had built his own relationships with theirs in mind. He had even spent three years with a broken man who was too blindly loyal and in love with one woman to accept what, by all means, had been her death.

Yet Duo Maxwell had never truly thought on the subject of Relena Darlian Peacecraft and Heero Yuy. He had accepted it, and helped it grow in what ways he could, but he had never stopped to truly look at the two and understand, even in those three years that Relena had been gone. And, somehow, the reality of it all hit him with a stunning force when he looked at Hilde.

"What is it?" Blinking in surprise, he shrugged, grinning all the while- as was his nature-, but he could feel the happiness drain out of his eyes. She noticed as well, for soon she was neither smiling nor laughing. "Duo?"

"…It's nothin', Hil…" He paused thoughtfully, grin faltering, before he caught himself. "Hey! Why don't you go hang out in the room and take a bath? It's been a long couple of days. I'm sure you feel pretty grimy and tired after all of this." Duo watched as Hilde frowned up at him, her mouth opening to call him on his moment of truth, but he was a step ahead.

"Don't try to-"

"-AND, if you're lucky, I might be feeling a little _dirty_ myself." Bingo. Her face lit like a Christmas tree as she easily caught the lewd insinuation in his words, and he took the opportunity to waggle his eyebrows suggestively. Then, before she could manage a second wind, he waved her off in the direction of their quarters and ducked around a corner with a hurried 'see ya in a little'.

Once alone, Duo felt the energy drain almost instantly from his body, and allowed himself the leisure of sinking to the ground against one of the corridor walls, staring at nothing in particular with depthless eyes. Uncharacteristically, he sighed.

The very thought of losing Hilde the way Heero had lost Relena scared the pilot, more than he could fathom. Would he have reacted any differently than Heero? The answer was blaringly obvious, but he scowled nevertheless at the internal question. And now there was the issue of revenge… but whose revenge? Certainly not Relena's. Sure, the princess was scarred and bitter towards the men who had taken her innocence- maybe even hateful, in her own way- but he had learned long ago that, no matter what, the pacifist wished no true harm on the people around her. No matter the crime. Now malicious intent was another thing, but the woman was by no means violent. Still, whether or not it was her wish, revenge was their goal; it was Heero's goal, above all else.

And yet, what about their meetings with the members of Osiris? From the reports received from the other pilots, the man known as Lytol Schinzer was surely not a threat. In fact, he seemed very much an asset. Oren Linnux was another matter altogether, but by all means it could be speculated that the legally blind bodyguard was only following his orders. Hell, none of them had even _seen_ Merrick Daye. And yet, the only person of the four generals that had even hinted so much as a malevolent grudge against them and Relena had been the one behind the scenes the entire time- a man who had not even been seen in person by anyone but the three other men.

"Cronis." The word was a snarl that surprised Duo through the vehemence and disgust in his voice. He had never heard his throat utter such a disgusting sound before, but he could not say that it was unwarranted. Not after all the man had intentionally done to Relena. He found his bright moods, albeit usually partially feigned, were now easily dampened by thoughts of the man and his perversion and cunning. What he had done was unforgivable.

Finding that it was doing him no good to be sitting on the floor pondering over the matter, Duo rose with a new sheen of determination in his eyes. True, the three lower-ranking generals of the rebel organization were doorways to a goal, but Cronis was the prized turkey at the end of the road.

And, by God, did he like fried turkey.

With a renewed grin of mischief, Duo marched around the corner and down the hallway, stuffing his hands in his pockets and beginning to whistle as he went. He approached the elevator at the end of the hallways with a wave to the handful of passersby before stepping inside and pressing the button that would take him to the residence floor. The door closed silently, the elevator moving so flawlessly that it was almost unnoticeable, before the thick slabs of metal open once more seconds later to allow him access to the new hallway. Still whistling, he continued on his way, turning a necessary corner. Abruptly, both movement and song stopped.

He could see the two figures huddled together at the end of the hall, conversing in hushed tones with one another, the smaller of the two leaning languidly against the wall with arms crossed while the other, towering figure stood rigidly across the way. It was not difficult to tell whom the two figures were, considering the short, dark hair and long platinum locks adorning each respective head. Now, what were those two doing together, of all people? Or rather, why were they not at each other's throats in a calm, collected battle to the death?

Stepping closer, he could just barely hear bits of conversation being thrown between the two.

"…hasn't said much… Cronis is… suggest?"

"…can't rely… more to it than that. Has she… anything else?"

"No. I won't force… her, either. She… heal properly. It's… than physical."

Frowning at the strange snatch of words, the Deathscythe pilot continued to inch forward down the hall, straining his hearing in order to pick out their words without getting too close for alert. Subconsciously, he began slinking against the wall to keep as inconspicuous as possible; which was considerable, taking into account that he was a war orphan trained in the art of stealth both on and off the streets.

"I'm not suggesting you force it out of her, but anything she's willing to tell you is useful to us. We don't know when they might try another attack," Zechs growled at the younger man in a more grating fashion than normal. Upon creeping closer, Duo easily realized that the former White Fang leader was eyeing the boy with a crazed gleam in his eye, vision narrowed dangerously. Heero, on the other hand, was still leaning against the wall, returning the look with his own death glare while facing up to Zechs's words with his own defense.

"There's nothing more to tell. We'll go off what we have so far and leave it at that. …Or would you prefer to damage her more?" This comment seemed to anger the older man further.

"She's not just a piece of equipment that can be 'handled' and 'damaged'," he stated in a low growl. Heero simply eyed the man fearlessly.

"Exactly." This last comment seemed to strike Zechs exactly where Heero intended, for the man fell to silence, eyeing the dark-haired man before him. Finally, he pivoted and started down the hallway, throwing a glare Duo's way as he suddenly caught sight of the conniving pilot. Duo waved sheepishly in response, watching as the obviously irate Zechs passed by and slipped around the corner without a backward glance.

Taking a momentarily paused to scratch his head, Duo then sprang forward towards where Heero was still leaning against the wall, whistling low as he approached. "Man, Zechs was pretty pissed. I don't think I've ever seen him that mad." Heero's response was a vicious glare, and, as usual, Duo promptly ignored it. Instead he burst into a playful grin and slung his arm jovially across the stoic man's shoulders. "Yo! Heero! How's it going, Buddy?"

"Hn. Go find someone else to entertain, Duo." Abruptly, he turned away, starting towards the far end of the hall where the doorway to his room resided, Duo following after like a puppy.

"Aww, come on, Heero! Lighten up! What'd you do to get Zechs so mad anyways? Hit on Noin? Pull his hair? Snog his sister?" A moment's halt in step was enough to tell Duo all he needed to know, and the braided boy found himself pinned to the floor, watching as his companion continued on. Then, loudly enough for the entire hall, "You _KISSED_ her?!"

* * *

Seconds later, Heero Yuy slipped into his doorway, shooting one last icy glare at his comrade before closing the door behind him. Duo was left with the merest glimpse of Relena sitting on the bed just beyond the doorway with a weary expression.

Having taken her lover's advice, Hilde was sitting comfortably in the bathtub of hers and Duo's room, washing soapsuds from her hair when she heard the door open and close again. She paused in her ministrations to listen for the normally raucous entrance the braided man made into the small living quarters, only to be greeted with the quiet shift of clothing and a few soft footsteps. Curious, she leaned forward to peer out the partially-opened doorway into the main portion of the room, only to find it as empty as when she had left it minutes ago.

"Duo?" Silence. "…Babe? Are you there?" Still, nothing. Frowning a bit, the puzzled young woman quickly washed the rest of the soap from her hair and pulled the drain, grabbing a towel to wrap around her body before stepping outside the tub. Her gut dropped as she did so, a feeling of unease rising to encase her entire body. She knew she heard someone enter… Perhaps Duo had come and left again? She took a step forward, which only caused her stomach to sink further. Irritated, she attempted to brush the feeling aside as simple paranoia from too many years fighting a war. Still, the unrest persisted, and soon she found herself scraping together her discarded clothing from the floor and hastily dressing before stepping fully into the bedroom.

"…Duo…? Are you here?" Again she received no response, frowning fiercely to herself as her gaze swept the room, seeing nothing out of sight. Had she simply imagined it? "Duo, this isn't funny. If you're planning something, you'd better drop it now before I find you!" The threat was normally good enough. God only knew that she hated surprises, much less the gags that her lover was so well known for. Duo knew it too, and he had always been considerate enough to drop his deviations when she asked. And yet, she was met with only the quiet of the room.

Perhaps she had imagined it all…

With a sigh, she started towards the door, scratching at her short wet hair in irritation while concluding that she would simply have to go find the stubborn ass of a man. Who was he to brush her off so easily anyways? She knew he had been dodging her inquiries on purpose, but he still owed her an explanation! …If only for the fact that he always forced one out of her when she was upset….

Focused on her mission, she reached triumphantly towards the door handle, twisting it in anticipation. Oh, yes, she would pester him until his ears bled, and then tie him down and pester him some more until he cracked. Though the man could talk up his own miniature storm, Hilde knew better than anyone how much Duo hated to be lectured himself. And she just happened to be a pro at scolding-your-boyfriend lectures.

Grinning deviously with excitement overriding her sense of dread and danger, Hilde was all but aware of the figure that approached from behind, the sharp glint of metal evident in the dim light.

* * *

AN: Whew, that was a long break. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very productive one. I was staying with my brother and sister in their new apartment, but they didn't have their computer hooked up at all, so I was otherwise computerless. I'll be back on regular updating schedule from now on, so now worries! Thanks for being so patient, everyone. I really appreciate it!

-Sar


	16. Discoveries

Disclaimer: Still don't own gundam.

Reviewer Comments: (I'll do these later, late night.)

Chapter 16

Duo was still gaping to himself as he walked down the hallway towards his room, eyes wide with disbelief. In any other circumstance, he might have grinned and hollered after about a good job, but this was Heero. Heero! Heero didn't kiss people, _especially_ Relena! What was the world coming to! Would the sky fall? Was the world ending? Would Bruce Willis fly into space with Ben Affleck with Liv Tyler waiting back on Earth to blow up an impossibly large Asteroid, only to sacrifice himself for the greater good and give his daughter over to the very man he originally didn't want her to be with? Whoa, that was a long thought…

Sighing, the braided man shook his head in resignation, deciding that he would never be able to explain those two to himself. Instead, he focused on the rapidly approaching door to his quarters, slowing as he saw the door slightly ajar. A grin formed on his lips.

Pushing aside the door, he peeked in, grin turning devious. Upon not finding his lover, Duo dared to venture carefully into the unusually clean room, glancing around. Almost immediately he noticed the bathroom door in the same condition as the bedroom door had been. The grin only grew more sinister and he unconsciously licked his lips. Creeping closer, he found himself crouching against the wall, ready to pounce in on the unsuspecting girl. There was silence beyond, and he could only guess that she was lounging comfortably in the bath as he had suggested. The picture that formed in his head was more than inviting, and he chose that moment to throw aside the door and hurl himself inside.

He slipped.

"Oof!" Landing with a crash on his back, Duo found himself lying on the linoleum, staring up at the ceiling. Through the ache in his already injured head, he could make out that he was lying in some sort of puddle, and quickly sat up with a humorous expression.

What he saw, though, made the expression drop right from his face.

"_HILDE!"

* * *

_

Heero bolted to his feet as he heard the strangled yell from down the hall, Relena sitting up as well from her place on the bed. Glancing towards the golden-haired diplomat, he could see an instant, overpowering fear flash through her eyes, hands unconsciously gripping the sheets like a lifeline. Frowning, he snatched up his gun and headed towards the door and out into the hallway, his destination clear from the voice that he would know anywhere. He was only mildly surprised when Relena followed after him, walking to his right and slightly behind, but bravely nevertheless.

It took little time to round the corner to the branch of hallway that held Duo's personal quarters, and Heero could already see the door wide open, though there was nothing beyond to be seen except the normal furniture. Frowning, he felt his grip tighten instinctively around that infamous handgun, approaching cautiously until he was flush against the wall beside the door, Relena pressed beside him. Then, motioning for her to stay put, he all but threw himself through the doorway, gun pointed menacingly out towards the room in preparation.

Nothing.

Taking a few steps further, he swept the room with his gun and his eyes before lowering the weapon and heading towards the only other place in the room: the bathroom. Relena followed his lead reluctantly.

"Duo?" There was no answer, but Heero could hear the shuffle of movement from within the bathroom and swiftly made his way to the door. Following the same procedure he had with the front door, he rushed into the bathroom, only to stop short. A moment later, his gun hand dropped to his side and he walked a few steps further before bending down, struck with the sight before him.

"I can't make it stop, Heero. She won't stop bleeding!" Duo was kneeling in a pool of blood, hands and face and hair all covered in the thick, drying substance. His violet eyes were wide, staring ahead in shock and pain, seeing nothing but the figure that he held tightly in his arms. The blood was everywhere, and still flowing, causing them both to look as though they were living dead. Heero watched as the braided pilot began to rock back and forth, clutching his charge even tighter. The damage was substantial…

"Hilde!" Prussian eyes snapped upwards as Relena's voice filled the room, the girl attempting to rush forward before Heero rose to catch her, shaking his head.

"Go get Sally. I'll do what I can until then." Their eyes met, fear and despair clashing with cool assurance, before she nodded and turned away, running as fast as her bare feet would carry. Heero, knowing that help was on its way, turned back to the scene and grabbed the nearest towel he could before kneeling beside the shocked man and surveying the mess that was Hilde.

Her throat had been slit.

Savagely ripping the towel into fine shreds, Heero worked around his motionless friend to wrap Hilde's neck gingerly. Taking Duo's foremost hand, Heero forced him to apply pressure to the wound so that he might look her over. He obeyed wordlessly, lost in his despair and stunned fear. He was in shock.

Moving to check along the rest of her body, he was acutely aware when blue eyes opened to a half-lidded position.

"D-" Her voice was a gurgle, causing blood to pour from her lips even as she tried to speak. "Du-" It was enough to snap the frozen man into motion, and Heero watched out of the corner of his eye as Duo bent close to the broken form of his lover, resting her body on his knees and against his chest so that he could stroke her hair.

"'t's okay, Hil. You'll be okay. Just… Just hold on. Don't try to speak." Duo's hands trembled with each stroke, each breath shuddering and strained as he watched the girl in his lap. Hilde simply stared up at him with an indescribable expression and attempted to speak again.

"Sc- …. Sc-…-red… I-'m…"

"I know… Me too, Hil… Me too…" Gingerly, he bent to kiss her forehead just as Heero could hear the shouts and pounding of Sally and the other medics arriving, Relena at the forefront.

* * *

"How is she doing?" Heero turned as Relena stepped up beside him, staring ahead through the window of the medical ward. Beyond, a slumbering Hilde was hooked up to a variety of machines, bandaged and clean, but unconscious and injured. Duo sat beside her in a large, cushioned chair, hunched over with his head in one hand, the other gripping one of Hilde's as tightly as he dared. 

"Great deal of blood loss, several stab wounds in her back that we found afterwards. She slipped into a coma about an hour ago, but Sally thinks that it might be for the best. She doesn't believe the coma will last long." Relena nodded solemnly, her eyebrows rising in sorrow as she looked upon the heartbreaking scene.

Duo had been deathly quiet when she had arrived with Sally Po, looking on as the team of medics had worked their hardest to sustain Hilde's life and stop the furious bleeding in her neck and back. He had said nothing except to answer the questions of how he had found her, laying motionless in a pool of her own blood with her life's essence spilling onto the floor. He had simply stood there as he listened to the reports that spoke of no signs of the attacker, and had followed the team to the medical ward when Hilde was finally rushed off. It was disturbing, really, to see the once-vibrant man to desolate and silent.

"Has he moved since they brought her in?"

"No. He's still in shock." Again, she nodded.

"Can I go in?" It was Heero's turn to nod, and she turned away and stepped into the room as quickly and quietly as possible, the stoic soldier deciding not to follow.

Inside, Relena could hear the gentle hum of the machines, the quiet beep of the heart monitor, and the sudden hiss of the respirator that allowed Hilde to breathe through her lacerated throat. Duo was more silent than any of the instruments, seemingly oblivious to her presence until she had come up beside him. Even then, he did nothing more than shift slightly in her direction, acknowledging her presence in the room. Relena, in turn, said nothing, and simply stood by, looking down upon her friends with concern and respect.

When Duo finally spoke, it was a cracked whisper. "This must be how he felt all those years." His choice of words startled her, and her eyes snapped down to look at him directly, cerulean brushing with muddy, despairing violet as he lifted his gaze as well. "I told him not to look for you, you know. I told him that it was useless, that you were dead. Never once… Never once did I think of how he actually felt. I'm sitting here for a couple of hours, but he was wandering for three years. I'm sorry 'Lena." She frowned gently and rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"There's nothing to apologize for. You said what you had to in order to protect Heero from himself. If anything, I am in your debt for looking after him." He did not respond, but instead returned his gaze to its original position, leaning forward to bring that limp hand to his lips and kiss it softly.

"I couldn't protect her…"

"Duo…"

"It's true! I let her go for ten minutes, and look! She was _right there_, and I couldn't save her." His face turned into a mask of rage suddenly- the first emotion she had seen from him since he had found Hilde in the bathroom. Placing Hilde's hand gently back on the bed, he stood and turned, her own hand falling away from his shoulder as he looked down at her. Leaning close, she was surprised when he pulled her into a fierce hug, burying his face in her hair. Eyes softening, she wrapped her arms around him as well. "We'll get those bastards, for you… and for Hilde. We'll get them."

Moving one hand to stroke his hair like she might a child, she rested her cheek against his head comfortingly. "I know you will. But… you should get some sleep for now. It's been a long, hard day, and Hilde wouldn't want you to make yourself sick. I'll watch over her." He pulled back slowly, looking between the two women with a pained expression. Finally, he conceded with a nod and turned to lean down and kiss his sleeping beauty before brushing past Relena and out the door.

She watched silently as he stopped outside, obviously looking to Heero, before giving a small nod and continuing on his way. Moments later, the stoic soldier entered and closed the door, looking to Relena with an unreadable expression.

She sighed and replaced Duo in the chair beside the bed, looking down at her friend helplessly.

"What did we ever do, Heero? What did _she_ ever do? Is this because of me? It has to be, though, doesn't it? God… I'll… I'll never forgive myself if she's not okay," she said angrily, feeling the tears well in her eyes. Much like Duo, she quickly placed her face in one hand, the other gripping fiercely at the hem of her shirt. She heard his footsteps, slow and deliberate, when he approached, and made no movement when she heard the scrape of another chair on the floor. It was when she felt the cool touch of his hand on her own that she finally dared look up, tears spilling over as she did so.

"It's not your fault, Relena." That same hand lifted to brush away her tears, the same way he had when he had once ripped up her birthday invitation. It only made the tears fall faster. What had happened since that time? Why did so many people hate them?

"Isn't it? Haven't we had this problem before- good, innocent people getting hurt because of me? Isn't it always because of me?" She could feel the anger, the guilt grip her as fiercely as Duo had. What did people hate so much?

"You're wrong."

"What?" Eyes wide, she looked into those sincere Prussian orbs, confused. How was she wrong?

"You're wrong. It has nothing to do with you." Those fingers lingered on her cheek, tracing invisible lines and brushing back hair. She groped to ask him to go on, but found that there was no need when he continued. "Cronis is after me." She could see the flame form in his eyes, growing slowly into a fire. "He went after you to get to me." She could only stare.

"…Why?"

She watched as he shook his head, gaze breaking from her own as he did so only to return just as quickly. "We don't know yet. It has something to do with the war five years ago, but we're not sure yet. He's holding a grudge against the Gundam pilots, me in particular, and that why he went after you."

"Because… because of what I feel for you?" She did not dare to include him in those feelings.

"Because of what we all feel for you." His words shocked her, so clear and straightforward. Did he mean it? "You have an entire race looking to you, Relena. I'm sure Cronis knows that as Gundam pilots we'll protect you. He was looking to pervert and destroy that." Her hopes shattered. He was just doing what he had always done… She was still just someone to protect.

She turned her head; effectively break both eye contact and physical contact. "Of course… I have two separate societies watching me, don't I? Why not take out the very thing that's in the world's eye?" The hand still gripping her shirt began to clench, the other joining it shortly. She could feel Heero's eyes boring into the back of her head, but she refused to look at him, instead opting to stare at Hilde's still form instead. "It's not like it hasn't happened before. I shouldn't be surprised."

"Relena…"

"No, I was being silly. Not everything is about me. It's always been the position, the spotlight-"

"Relena."

"-I mean, what did I expect? I was one of Earth's and the Colonies' foremost political figures-"

"Relena!" She stopped when she heard the sharpened tone of his voice, averting her eyes to the ground, head still turned away.

"Yes, Heero…?"

"Look at me." She refused to comply, continuing to look at the ground and convince herself of how interesting it was, and how those dark blue eyes were not the most captivating things she had ever seen. Still, he persisted. "Relena, look at me." She heard the slight creak of his chair and felt his hand grasp her chin, gently but firmly lifting and turning her head until it was level with his own. She found her eyes drawn to his. "I didn't mean it like that." He released her chin, and simply looked at her, taking in the sight of her. She could only return his gaze, a pained expression unknowingly painted on her face.

They did not speak for a time, but participated in a staring match that Heero eventually won as she turned away once more, settling back into her chair with a small nod. "I… understand. You weren't trying to hurt my feelings." She left the rest of her words unspoken. They both knew there was a 'but' hidden behind her lips and her face. "Will you… will you just sit with me for awhile? I don't think I can be here alone with her."

"…Hn."

* * *

AN: I know, I know. WAY overdue. No killing, please. I've had lots of stuff lately, plus a lack of inspiration. I'll tell all of you now, I'm NOT GOING TO STOP WRITING. I will finish this story. I just need a little more time. I have school and work and homework to do. I love writing, but my major is Zoology, and thus that means LOTS of science classes. It's like sucking the energy from a human. It drains you. So, bear with me. I promise I won't quit on you guys. 

Hope you liked the chapter.

-Sar


	17. Tense Situations

Disclaimer: I do not know, nor have I ever owned GW or any of it's characters... Damnit...

**Review comments: **

**Everyone: **Just doing an overall reply to the comments I've received over the past couple of months. Yes, I've been on the most irritating hiatus one could manage, and I'm really sorry, but look! Chapter goodness! Thanks for being so patient, everyone, and thanks for all the great reviews! I hope you enjoy chapter 17, I think it helps to present Osiris a little better. I'll try to get back on regular schedule for next week.

* * *

Chapter 17

"You holding up okay?"

The sound of Trowa's voice caused Quatre to open his eyes and focus his gaze on the tall boy. As emotionless and quiet as ever, the former Heavyarms pilot took a seat beside his companion at the back of the shuttle, eyeing him carefully as the platinum-haired Winner heir sat up slowly, wincing at the immediate onslaught of pain he experienced.

"I'll live. Is Wufei flying?" Trowa nodded and leaned forward to help Quatre climb to his feet, the latter leaning heavily on his friend as they both started towards the cockpit area of the shuttle.

It had been a long day already, and the flight back to Preventer HQ seemed to make it that much longer. For the most part Quatre had been resting on the single futon in the back of the shuttle, thinking all the while about the events that had brought them to this point of their mission. Many things had gone seriously wrong in only those past few days, and now another was coming to a close with no answers in sight. If anything, there were only a million more questions brought about by the very enemy they had intended to hunt. They certainly had not been expecting Lytol Schinzer.

"We'll be arriving within the next couple of minutes," Wufei said as the two men appeared in the small pilot compartment. It was his form of a greeting.

They had had no trouble in getting back to the shuttle after leaving the Schinzer household. Marie had sent them off with a blessing, an apology, and a smile, before disappearing back into the house. Quatre could not say he would not miss the kind old woman.

The Schinzers had been a surprise, and Quatre still did not know what to think of the amiable couple. He had, however, determined that neither was a threat through his or her own choice. It puzzled him when he wondered why a man like Schinzer would work for Zephyr Cronis. There had to be more there than they originally assumed, but what could that be?

"Have you heard anything from Headquarters since our initial contact?"

Wufei shook his head. "Negative. Everything has been silent up here."

Quatre frowned, causing the pain in his head and body only to worsen. "I see…" Normally Zechs and Lady Une would be all over them, wanting to know their status. Even if it were not Zechs, then surely Duo or Heero would have contacted them. Had something happened?

The thought did not sit well with him, and Quatre found a feeling of dread quickly growing in his stomach.

"Wufei, please dock as soon as possible. I fear something might have happened in the past few hours."

The Chinaman shared his frown, but nodded silently and focused exclusively on his destination. They would be landing in no time.

* * *

The three men climbed carefully from the shuttle as they finished docking, being met with a spatter of medical technicians and the normal rabble of Preventers that were assembled after the arrival of a mission shuttle. At the other end of the dock all three men could see Lady Une, Sally Po, and Zechs Merquise waiting for them. None of the three looked pleased, but if anything were stressed and unsure. 

Something had most definitely happened.

Quatre was first to reach the trio, shaking off medics as he went, concern spread across his features.

"What's wrong?"

"We've… had an incident…"

* * *

"Heero! Is she…?" Quatre's eyes were wide as he limped in the direction of Hilde's room, the stoic soldier standing outside once again, looking in on the small space where Relena was still seated. She was currently reading a book to the comatose girl, holding one limp hand in her own while she held the book with the other. Heero partly turned as his friends approached, watching Quatre with his normal, unreadable expression. 

"She's stable, but in a coma. Somebody was able to break into the building and took her by surprise. Relena's sitting with her now if you want to go in." Needing no other incentive, the worried blond disappeared around the corner and into the room, the other pilots approaching as he went.

"I take it you were unable to catch the assailant?" Heero nodded with a dangerous frown, directed at nothing and no one in particular, as Wufei asked the question and came to a halt beside him. "Any evidence?"

"None. I swept the entire room after we discovered her in the bathroom. Whoever attacked her was efficient. I'm not holding out on the fact that Hilde saw any of it either."

Wufei nodded his agreement. "Highly unlikely."

"Where's Duo?" Trowa asked, joining the other pilots in the staring contest upon the medical room.

"Relena persuaded him to rest about an hour ago. I suspect he'll be back to check up on her soon." The two men nodded in agreement before all three fell silent beside one another. What else was there to say?

Inside, they could see Quatre conversing with Relena, the two blondes visibly upset and taking comfort with each other. Heero furrowed a brow as he looked at the two, his focus primarily for the young woman he considered to have under his protection. He was supposed to have taken her home today, but now…

_Tomorrow…_

It had been a long day for all of them.

* * *

"Good work today- all of you," he drawled, waving a careless hand towards the three men who stood before him. One was injured, but efficiently cared for and bandaged now, the second soaked in what they all knew was not his own blood, and the third glaring distastefully at the second, obviously more than ready to douse the younger man in a vat of soapy water and perhaps deliver a rather lengthy lecture. They were all so very different, he mused, all representing a different aspect, different _era_ of life. He could not help but grin lazily, almost maniacally, over at the three men who worked as his underlings. It was not hard to keep them under control. 

"Thank you, Sir," spoke the first, seemingly unaffected by the wounds beneath his dressings. The man was thin and spindly in size, but stood ramrod straight like a soldier might, crystalline eyes staring intently forward at the far wall. Oren Linnux was a loyal, determined man albeit his height and build, forever the faithful lapdog to whomever commanded his current attentions and paycheck, and Cronis found that he was not regretful that he had been that man for the past several years. Linnux certainly gave his clients their money's worth in duty and devotion, and the short Russian did not allow any personal feelings or morals to interfere with the work he executed. He was, Cronis thought with a bitter internal smile, something like the perfect soldier.

Unfortunately for Linnux, the true Perfect Soldier had bested the small man at his own game while already injured from an explosion. To say Cronis was disappointed was an understatement. He had practically served up the two pilots to the skilled Russian on a platter, but they were still walking and breathing far away from one of Osiris' accommodating containment cells. Cronis was not pleased with that information.

Still, Linnux was irreplaceable in his position as the secondhand man of Osiris. Oren had done wonders for the moral and training of the organization, even without lifting a finger of his own. Since the end of the war he had shaped ambitious teenagers and passionate men to become soldiers for a cause that only ghosted across their minds and through their ears. He owed much to the stony-faced bodyguard, and so he could let the mistake losing Heero Yuy slip… just this once. They had all done enough damage in that area to allow for one blunder. It was simply… upsetting to see that his finest man had committed such an atrocity.

Daye was another matter.

With thick brown hair and a moderate height, Merrick was like an infection: subtle and creeping until he had gained enough hidden strength to wage a full-out war. Where Linnux was efficient, Daye was deadly. It was usually too late by the time the enemy saw him coming, and Zephyr Cronis loved that about the man. Merrick Daye was a military brat with enough bitterness and caution to strike his enemies with as damaging a blow as possible, no matter how messy the job. He had obviously proved that today with his little infiltration escapade into Preventer Headquarters. Daye was a man after his own heart.

He had returned in a rush earlier that evening, as unfriendly and brooding as he always was, except this time he had been covered in blood and sporting no personal wounds. It was like Christmas for Cronis.

The murder of Hilde Scheibeker had not been on his agenda of things-to-do, but Cronis most certainly approved of it. Why not piss off the pilots further? It was rather amusing so far. She was merely another casualty, as it were. What did one girl matter in the long run? He planned to annihilate them _all_ in the end anyways. The petite German girl was only the beginning. Truly, he had to commend Merrick on his fine work, and had done so with vehemence to the barbaric grunt of acceptance from Daye himself.

Plans were coming along nicely.

And then there was Lytol Schinzer. The old man was not pleased with what Daye had done, though he had carried out his own orders without protest. Even the lovely Marie had agreed to be part of the scheme to lure the remaining Gundam Pilots into a false sense of security. Of course, Cronis was not foolish enough to think that Schinzer would actually lie to the pilots when telling them about Osiris, but he still knew enough of the man's sense of obligation to know that Schinzer would not betray more than was necessary. In essence, Lytol Schinzer had knowingly dangled the bait for the trap, and he had made sure they took it… hook, line, and sinker.

Schinzer was a reliable man for what he was worth. Of course, unlike the other two, Lytol loudly verbalized his disagreements when they were relevant, but he was a man who followed his gut more than anything. He was a person of character who had grown powerful and wise just by his natural ability to read and predict the people around him. He was brash and tactful all at once, and damn proud of the fact. The soldiers looked up to him because of it.

Schinzer was a natural leader. He commanded respect through his grim, but smiling honesty and gruff manners. No issue was taboo to the war veteran, and he certainly stomped on any and all dangerous grounds he pleased. Cronis had to admit that there was something admirable about the man.

There was only one problem with the aging warrior: that undeniable sense of justice. Zephyr Cronis knew that the older man had done more than his fair share of despicable acts, but he had never taken such duties without a great deal of protestation and a usually expensive form of payback afterwards.

Not to say that he betrayed his own allies, that was never the case, but Lytol Schinzer knew how to make hell when forced to do something he did not wish to do. It was like dealing with the devil, as Merrick had once pointed out: you could ask anything of him, but there was always a price to go along with those evil deeds. The most peculiar and dangerous part of it all, though, was that Schinzer had yet to make trouble for Osiris.

…Ah well, he would deal with it when the problem arose. By that time, it would not matter anymore.

For now the three men stood before him like the soldiers they were meant to be, despite their differing states of health and cleanliness. They were his to bend and manipulate, as he deemed necessary, and all three were able - if not willing – to do anything he asked of them. The stage was set. He had everyone where he wanted them to be, and now it was time for the play to commence.

"Tomorrow is a very important day for us, Gentlemen," he drawled with a self-satisfied smirk, "I expect you to be ready to begin nice and early with the next part of our operation, it will be necessary to get a good head-start. It seems our little bird plans to fly to coop, you see, and I'm sure you all know how much I hate seeing pets get away. I suggest caution, though, as there will be hawks guarding her flight. You have already seen what they are capable of, I expect you to be prepared for the inevitable battle." He grinned at his little speech. He loved analogies.

He had been planning it all for so long, he could almost taste the victory in his mouth. And even if he could not fully enjoy the tang of triumph just yet, he could still remember how _she_ felt beneath him, and he was just as pleased with that satisfaction.

Ah, yes, his little bird. He would soon have her back in his possession, of that he was confident, and she would taste all the sweeter upon her return.

There was nothing quite like her. He could tell why Yuy wanted to hold on to her. Who wouldn't? He had actually been disappointed to find her untouched when she had finally appeared in his study that fateful day. Not from way of his own men, of course- he had made sure of that- but in way of Yuy himself. Had that man no pride in his own gender? Surely he had wanted the girl, so why not take her? Yes, Cronis had indeed been disappointed, but also wholly pleased that he had been able to savor such innocence for himself. The princess was indeed a fierce catch to make.

She had been so _feisty_ that first time, and even afterwards when he knew his men had dared to disobey him she stayed resilient. The little bird was quite a fighter. He now knew personally why she had been such a gem during and after the war, her pride was unmistakable, if not misplaced. She was just a foolish little girl, after all.

But he digressed… Relena Peacecraft was only his consolation prize for achieving his true target.

Heero Yuy grew reckless when the little bird was in danger. He had all but thrown his life away when he thought her dead. The bait that was the princess was perfect for the Perfect Soldier. Now, all that was left was to snatch her away again, and all would be well. Pilot 01 would crumble without his support system.

He would see Heero Yuy fall no matter what.

"Get some sleep. Wolves must be well-rested in they are to go hunting." He sneered to himself and watched as they men turned to leave his sight, his eyes picking up the subtle gesture as Schinzer wordlessly demanded Daye follow. The battle-scarred soldier did not look pleased. Curious about when his subordinate might do, Cronis followed them out the doorway and down the hall, waiting until he heard them come to a halt to do the same.

"What did you do?"

"I did what I had to."

"Bullshit!" The voice paused to lower itself to a harsh whisper. "That's _bullshit_, and you know it. What you did was unauthorized and dishonorable."

"The leader approved. I was in the right where Osiris is concerned."

"You killed an innocent woman, Merrick! Do you realize what you've done?"

"I am well aware of my actions. You shouldn't stick your nose where it does not belong." Cronis listened as footsteps started to tap quietly off in the opposite direction, before suddenly halting.

"Your father would be appalled by what you've done."

The tone of Daye's voice was biting as he replied, "Well, it is good that he is not alive to hear about it, isn't it, _Uncle_?" The sudden, violent shift of clothing hinted at an arm being jerked from a harsh grip.

When Schinzer spoke again, Cronis felt a most definite chill in his own sadistic bones at the tone.

"Wash yourself, I have no use for a dirty mongrel in my ranks."

"…_Yes Sir_…"

And then one was walking in the other direction, the other coming towards Cronis. He did not try to hide himself, and managed to come face-to-face with Lytol Schinzer as he rounded the corner once again. Cronis knew he was grinning at the old man. Schinzer was snarling, a look uncharacteristic of the veteran.

"I hope this will not affect your mission, Lytol. I would be rather disappointed to find out you are backing out this late in the game. I hope that is not the case." They both knew his words for what they were: a threat_. Do not dare try to cross me over some family feud, or I will have your head_. Schinzer was undaunted, but Cronis knew he had made his point.

"Of course not. I will fulfill my part of the mission, as promised." It was as good as he would get from the bitter soldier, and so he stepped aside, still wearing that mocking grin. Schinzer took the opportunity to continue on his way, scowling at any who got in his path.

This would not be the end of the conflict between uncle and nephew, but that could wait as well.

For now, all that mattered to Zephyr Cronis was his plans.

It was time to catch himself a bird.

* * *

As soon as Lytol Schinzer was out of sight and out of mind, he ducked into one of the few unmonitored passageways in the entirety of the Osiris Headquarters and pulled out a device barely the size of a coin. In fact, it looked very similar to a coin. 

Flipping open the top portion of the device, he pulled his finger across a small touch pad on the lower portion and waited for the miniature screen to light up. A moment later, the familiar features of an elderly woman appeared on the screen, looking up at him with concern etched deep into hazel eyes. Through the communication unit he had created himself for only the two of them, Schinzer began to speak to his wife.

"Marie, we don't have too much longer. Get ready. Tomorrow's the day."

* * *

_AN: So, what'd'ya think of the first-hand look of Cronis's screwed up mind? Sick little brat, isn't he? I was really happy with how this chapter came out, even if it took a long time to finish. Again, I'm sorry for that. Hope you enjoyed it. _

_-Sar_


	18. Keeping Promises

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing? Not mine. Cronis and his lackeys? Those I keep.

**Reviewer Comments:**

**To Everyone:** I might get around to these tomorrow, but as for now the phrase "burned out" is rather an understatement due to work, so for now you'll have to be content with just the actual chapter. Hope you enjoy it, everyone!

* * *

Chapter 18

The morning came swiftly to Preventer Headquarters, revealing a rather exhausted Duo Maxwell half-asleep next to the bed of the comatose patient that was both his friend and lover. Hilde had not moved since she had fallen into unconsciousness the previous night, and even Sally had said that there was no way to predict if or when she might wake up. The trauma was overwhelming, he had seen that for himself, and so now all he could do was wait. It was the one thing he hated to do.

Not even twenty-four hours had passed by since the attack, and he was already growing impatient in his bedside vigil. He wanted her to wake up, to look at him and smile; he wanted her to tell him that everything would be okay, as long as he was there to watch over her. But she couldn't, and the pain in Duo's chest was overwhelming.

He had let her down.

It was like suffocating slowly. Even the scant hours of sleep he had tried to force upon himself had been useless, and he had just lay in his bed staring at the ceiling and using all his will power to not go racing back to the infirmary. When he finally decided that he had been 'sleeping' long enough, he had gone to her without a pause or a smile along the way, kicking a vigilant Heero out of the room (quick conversation had divulged that the prussian-eyed pilot had practically thrown the other pilots and women into their separate bedrooms to get them to depart), as well as shoving a sleeping Relena into his arms and sending them off together. Heero had protested in his own, silent way, but Duo had won out for once against the obstinate man. Now, he was alone with the dark-haired beauty, and he was scared mindless.

He had learned long ago on the streets of L2 never to cry, no matter the situation, but he could feel the undeniable tremble in his body as he sat there and held her hand. She looked eerily beautiful lying there; like a morbid Sleeping Beauty who had yet to be kissed by her prince. He wished it were that easy.

Sally had said that the damage to Hilde's throat had looked much worse than it had been. For whatever reason, the person who had attacked her had not cut deep enough to kill, and the cut had been clean if not altogether hasty. He had been told, and knew from his own personal experience during the war, that it was lucky for her to have been found so soon after it had happened. She had lost a substantial amount of blood, but it was not enough to be fatal.

For that, he was grateful, but the fact remained: Hilde was near death, unconscious in a hospital bed and unable to tell what happened to her.

His hatred for Osiris blazed.

Duo was not the type of person to hate anyone or anything, but for once he could not feel anything else. The rage burned within his chest at even the grazing thought of the despicable organization. They had already taken a dear friend and done unspeakable things to her for three years, set ruthless traps for himself and his friends, and now taken the one woman who defined his life and come close to taking hers. They had crossed the line at Relena, now it was seek-and-kill.

He had never felt such rage, not even when he had sat beside a dying Sister Helen as an orphaned child amidst the rubble of Maxwell Church. It was consuming.

"Hilde…" He leaned in close to the comatose girl until his forehead rested just beside her cheek, inhaling the familiar scent and closing his eyes to feel her warmth. He could hear her breathing unevenly beside him with the help of the ventilator inserted down her throat, and it made the bitter taste in his mouth grow.

He did not know how long she would stay this way. He could not even guess how long she might be unconscious, or if she would wake up at all. Her body was torn and weak, unfit to move and shift without aid. And it was his fault.

"Duo?" He jerked upright at the sound of a feminine voice nearby. Immediately, his eyes flew to the face of his sleeping girlfriend, but Hilde's eyes were closed and still, her breathing just as shallow as the moment before. "Duo?" The voice was coming from behind him, and as he turned he saw that a drowsy-looking Relena was standing in the doorway, Heero standing behind her with his usual blank expression. Duo forced a small smile.

"Hey, Princess, you're up early." He could hear the strain and sedate enthusiasm in his voice, but for once he could not muster the will to disguise the sound. He watched as she returned the smile kindly. "Going home finally?" Heero had mentioned the situation with her house, and Duo knew that if it were not for yesterday's… incident, the princess would already be safe at home.

"Yes, we were going to go early to avoid any unnecessary attention. I'm sure by now there'll be more than a few people who have gotten news that I'm alive. Heero's taking me now, but I thought that I'd check in on you before I go. There's no change?" She asked the question with no expectations and a gentleness that he was instantly grateful for. He had not personally known Relena very well or very long before she had disappeared, but he had come to appreciate her presence even in the short time after the war ended. Now, he was relieved to have her presence nearby. He understood now why Heero held on to her so tightly.

Shaking his head in response, Duo redirected his gaze back to Hilde's sleeping form. "Nah, nothing." A hand came up to brush back bits of hair lovingly, his eyes taking in as much of her as he could. "Sally said there's no way to tell when she'll wake up, but-"

"You know better, right?" He turned enough to see the comprehension in her eyes, the sweet smile on her lips, and a silent Heero give a confirming nod from over her shoulder. Duo felt his own lips twitch at the edges, though bitterly.

"Hil knows how much I need her. She's always taking care of me. All five of us -- The Gundam Pilots – we were raised to do stupid, courageous things, even during times of peace, and she's always there when I come home. She yells at me for being an idiot, hits me when I need it, pulls on my braid, then sits down and curls up on the couch next to me and asks if I need some ice for my bruises." Memories ran rampant through his mind. His favorite part of the day was to come home to Hilde. Unlike Heero, they did not live primarily in the Preventers Headquarters, but had an apartment across the city together. He owed her a life beyond war and duty. "She'll wake up." There was no room for doubt. Not anymore.

"I know she will." He could hear the continued smile in her voice, and he knew she was not just humoring him. Duo merely nodded and leaned closer to the woman he loved. Relena would know he appreciated her words. He did not bother to turn as he heard her footsteps slowly lead away from him, followed by a second near-silent pair.

Hilde would wake up, and by that time there would be nothing more to worry about. He'd make sure of that.

* * *

She felt naked as she stepped through the Preventer hallways. Although she was now clothed in her own attire, Relena still found herself barefoot and without any jacket and direction through the building. She held her head high, her back straight, but she was uneasy even as she tread softly upon the tiled floor. She could feel the eyes of the soldiers on her back and face as she passed, and the sensation made her shiver.

The warm hand on the small of her back made her jump, until she realized whom the hand belonged to. Glancing up, she found herself staring at the profile of the Prussian-eyed pilot, and watched as he returned the glance, felt his palm push gently but firmly against her body. Encouragement. Reassurance. That small touch was his way of supporting her, and she took the opportunity to lean into it as much as she dared. They walked together silently, comfortably. It felt good to be near him again, to be walking with him at her side.

She was going home, and Heero was taking her there.

Unfortunately, she could not get the image of Duo out of her mind as he sat there beside Hilde's bed. In the time she had known him, Relena could not remember a day when the braided pilot could not plaster a smile on his face for the world to see, but today he had barely looked up at her. She had learned through sheer experience that Duo was not the type of person to drop his shining persona so easily. He was hurting, badly, and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as she thought of the fury it would involve to change him so.

She had discovered long ago that it was easy to forget who exactly the Gundam Pilots were – or rather, who the five boys were whom she had come to know and love for their different quirks and personalities. Each boy had a different past, a different path that he had followed, but they had ended up together, facing a future that none of them could guess at with the same hope and determination they had held during the war. Sometimes, it was hard to think of them as anything more than the people she knew face-to-face.

But they were the Gundam Pilots. They were dangerous, powerful, capable of acts that Relena did not dare to touch upon in her mind. She had seen pieces of what they could accomplish while calm and collected, and she had never known any but Wufei to suffer any sort of public outbursts of anger. They were boys -- No, men… with deadly control. Perhaps that was what made her skin crawl. Duo Maxwell, along with the other four pilots, did _not_ lose control. But he would not smile at her that day. Not really.

It scared her.

Relena felt the shiver run forcefully through her body. Instinctively, she leaned in closer to Heero, and she knew that he felt her unease as his arm shifted so that it was closer to cradling her waist than simply resting upon her back. Even so, she noted, he held her in a way that looked platonic and purely professional. She looked up at him again, and was unable to drown what she knew must have been a wretched expression when he returned the look from the corner of his eye. She saw the stern expression on his features warp into a miniscule frown. He would not ask what was troubling her. She did not doubt that he might very well know _exactly_ what it was that had her shaken so thoroughly. But he would never ask. Somehow, they had both learned long ago to simply trust that the other would speak when the time was right.

"What will he do?" The question came quietly, and the young Peacecraft was not quite sure why she had asked, but she waited patiently for his response.

"…I don't know."

"I'm worried for him, Heero."

"I know."

He was keeping his responses short, and while this was quite normal for the taciturn pilot, she knew better than to accept it as such. "He'll go after them, won't he?" It was not so much a question as a statement. She knew. She'd be ignorant not to.

"Most likely." There was no hesitation. Her heart sank.

"You won't stop him, will you? You'll go too," she said quietly, more to herself this time. He would not respond, but the slight tightening at her waist was answer enough. When Duo went to get revenge, so would Heero. Relena was not sure whether to take counsel in that knowledge or not. Two men she cared for deeply, one a close friend and the other… she did not know how to label Heero after his actions the previous day… Two men of importance to her were prepared to go off and make war in her name as well as Hilde's. Two irreplaceable personalities were ready to risk themselves against what had already proved to be dangerous odds, just to protect the people that were a part of their lives.

She almost laughed. It was the war all over again.

Except, this time, she felt like more than just an ideal.

She came to a halt, turning even as he did the same. She took the time to catch his intense gaze and hold it, studying him shrewdly as though she would never be able to do so again. He was unfazed, and merely stood before her like an emotionless statue.

"Promise me you'll come back, and that you'll keep him safe. Promise me you'll do what you have to as safely as you can. No risks, Heero. No 'lowest chance of survival'. You both need to come back, alive and well. In the end, that's more important than any vengeance you could seek on a man like Zephyr. Promise me that we'll see both of you again, as soon as possible, healthy and unbroken. Hilde needs him here when she wakes up, and I-," she faltered, catching her breath in her throat. Carefully, as though he were fragile, she lifted a hand and tentatively touched her fingers to his cheek, her eyes searching frantically through his own. He did not flinch. She leaned in close, so that her voice was only a shuddering whisper in his ear. "Let me stay with you… Heero."

It was a time before he moved at all. Relena heard her words echo through her brain, desperate and scared. She had never been known for such emotions, but she felt them now when faced with the idea that he might never come back to her. It was the closest she could bring herself to outright forbidding him to go, for she knew such a command would fall on deaf ears. So, she had to give him a reason to come back. A mission. She had already had to wait too long to see him again. She _would not_ lose him. Never again.

Finally, the stoic pilot stepped back away from her, his gaze steady and expression unreadable. Something flickered in his eyes, but she was unable to decipher its meaning before he turned away and started walking down the hallway once more.

"We should get going. The car is waiting outside. Your butler will start to worry if you're late."

The stunned princess could only watch him, her face falling as he walked away. She stared at his retreating back, before suddenly schooling her features into a graceful mask of diplomacy and proceeding to follow Heero Yuy through Preventer HQ.

She was prepared to step out into the sunlight as she saw the front doors of the government building loom into view, Heero halting only to wait for her to catch up so he could escort her to the car. She refused to increase her pace, and took her time in reaching him before pushing past the stubborn ass altogether and proceeding outside. If he wanted distant professionalism, she would give it to him. She was still the Vice Foreign Minister, after all.

Unfortunately for Relena, she had forgotten about the Press since her departure from civilized living three years ago. She found herself suddenly overwhelmed by flashes and voices, and only years of experience and an iron will kept her façade in place, bare feet and all. Internally, she realized she was having what might be considered a mild panic attack. Her feet refused to move, even as she looked on evenly over the crowd of what she soon recognized to be more than just the Press. The streets around Preventer HQ were quite literally flooded with hundreds, maybe thousands of people, all of which suddenly began to cheer and shout as they realized who it was that stood before them.

There were so many, crowding around even against established police blockades. They pressed inwards insistently once they knew she had emerged from the building, and Relena felt her heart rate jump drastically as bad memories began to surface.

_Crowds of soldiers and prisoners, all around, cramped in vans that were never made to hold that many people at once. The constant gnaw of hunger as she sat sandwiched between men who looked at her as both a source of food and something a great deal more carnal. _

She kept her breathing as even as possible, but she could feel the panic grow rapidly inside her chest. Of all the things she had endured since she was fifteen, this was one situation where she found herself crumbling hopelessly beneath the pressure. Too many cruel memories of the past three years involved crowds of people surrounding her, trying to get to her, most of them men.

_Men and women dying around her as they traveled, shot by soldiers or simply starved to death. Humans who clawed at her whenever she managed to gain a bigger piece of bread than another, or find a few wild berries while trekking through the forests in groups of half-starved corpses._

She swallowed heavily, but was unaware of the motion, or the fact that she was slowly losing hold of her composure, her face draining of all color. Her skin turned clammy, even in the heat of the sun.

_The stink of beer and sweat, invading her senses and suffocating her as she was crushed beneath a foreign weight and hurt by a person who found she held no real value beyond the pleasure of a sex toy. A tight circle of men caged her in, even if she managed to push her current assailant off, many waiting to take their turns at violating the very core of her being as a woman and a human. Shouts of encouragement and crude excitement echoed throughout the small space as she struggled violently. It hurt so badly, she just wanted to scream!_

A strangled cry escaped her lips as she was suddenly swept off her feet, and Relena Peacecraft mentally fought over whether to struggle with all her might or scream like she wanted before she recognized the scent of gunpowder and mint mixed with something unique. Heero.

"Keep your head down, we'll be in the car soon."

She did as she was told, gladly burying her face in the crook of his neck and inhaling that comforting scent. She could feel herself tremble in his arms.

How had they found out that she was there? How had the Press known when she would be coming out? Had they simply been camped there? But what about all of the civilians? Surely Une would not have allowed a press leak to go so far… There were too many factors to consider, but Relena realized how desperately unprepared she was for such a greeting. Had she been three years younger, she would have met the crowd with a kind smile and a few choice words, but now… Now, she could not wipe away the memories buried inside her and the fear of a crowd.

Faintly, she heard a car door opening and found herself being deposited in the passenger seat of a black sedan, a silent Heero closing the door carefully behind her before practically vaulting the car and sliding into the driver's seat. He paid no heed to the reporters, but instead nearly took off a few fingers as he forcefully closed her own door, glaring that infamous death glare at the shameless group. He revved the engine, and the crowd gained enough incite to create a path for him to take.

Relieved, Relena allowed herself to settle back into her seat with a small sigh, bringing a shaking hand up to cradle her forehead.

They were well away from the crowd when she looked up again to watch the road ahead where he was driving.

"I'm sorry, Heero. I wasn't expecting that-"

"There's nothing to apologize for. I'll speak to Une about that later today. Someone's leaking information." He was frowning with distaste, but she found she felt the same way about the situation. A leak could be dangerous.

"…Alright."

They rode in silence for a time, Heero's eyes locked on the road ahead while hers shifted between the interior of the car, the pavement outside, and the contours of her makeshift bodyguard's face. He was still saving her from the world, even after all this time, and she had been bold enough to ask to stay with him.

Was that it? Did she cause him trouble? But, no, it had to be more than that. Heero was mysterious and secretive, but he had always been straightforward with her through the good and the bad. If she were mere trouble, he would not have wasted his time to begin with. So what, then? Had she been too bold in her words? Well, yes, she already knew she had been, but how bad was the damage she had done? Had she crossed a boundary in trying to make him promise something she knew she had no right to ask for?

Her eyebrows drew together, and she suddenly felt guilty. Heero had always had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and she was merely adding to it with her petty selfishness. It was not right to ask him for such a promise…

"Heero, I-"

She did not get the chance to finish as an explosion and a flash of brilliant white light overcame the car.

* * *

_AN: So tired right now it's not fun. Work is kicking my ass, to say the least. 8-hour shifts four days in a row where I'm not allowed to sit down. At all. Quite serious. So, when I get home at night I'm pretty whipped. Bare with me, guys. But at least I got Chapter 18 out in less than... what was it? 4 months? I'll see about Chapter 19 soon. Oh, and have fun with the cliffie. Hehe. _

_-Sar_


	19. Under Fire

Disclaimer: I think this is getting old. I don't own it, don't sue.

_AN: Okay, I can't promise how well this chapter is actually going to be, but I tried my best. I'm sorry about breaking my promise, everyone. I know I keep saying I'll write. It's just a busy time in my life. I do what I can when I can. Thank you for all your support and well-wishes, I love getting them and reading everything you guys have to say. If you don't read To See You Again, you might not know that I'm no longer doing Reveiwer Comments (not that I was all that consistent with them) anymore, but if you'd like to talk, I'm always around online, so you guys are more than welcome to IM or e-mail me._

_Thanks again, Everyone. I really am so glad to know so many people enjoy reading what I write, and I'll try to do better._

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 19

After surviving a war, a mass coup d'etat by a child, multiple kidnappings, and her own rape, Relena had become accustomed to sudden, dire situations that threatened her life and the lives of those around her. She had learned how to keep her head and her dignity through it all – or at least as much as she could manage of each. She had been raised to face off against the highest, most powerful politicians with a kind smile and an iron will. She was undaunted by the men who would normally intimidate each other with their pissing contests. So, it was only natural that an explosion would do little to shake her beyond the initial surprise…

…Right?

Relena heard the awkward screech of surprise that tore from her lips as the blinding light flashed before them and the car suddenly tilted and jerked violently, glass shattering and causing her to duck away. Her ears hurt with the sound of the explosion, her head starting to pound almost instantly, but she ignored the sensation in order to concentrate on the car itself.

Luckily, they did not flip, though her breath caught in her throat as the car teetered precariously on two wheels before slamming back down to the earth with a jolt and the bounce of rebounding tires. She was suddenly very grateful to be secured beneath a seatbelt, as the cloth strap kept her head from slamming into either dashboard or ceiling. She felt disoriented, unable to process her thoughts clearly, and only vaguely realized that the car was only just skidding to a stop. They were just short of slamming into the brick wall of an office building.

The next moments were deathly quiet, and Relena could feel the anticipation swell in her blood. That would not be the end of it…

She took the chance to look at Heero and instantly felt the color drain from her face.

In all the commotion, the prussian-eyed pilot had neglected to wear his own seatbelt, but had somehow managed to shift his body so that his arms and shoulders took the impact instead of his head. A portion of his upper right bicep looked like it had been sliced open with jagged glass, and Relena soon realized that wasn't far from the truth as her eyes shifted. The windshield was shattered beyond recognition, small bits of glass embedded in the seats and her own skin, not to mention Heero's. She could feel the blood run down her face from where the jagged bits had scratched her, but her arms had caught most of the debris that had hit.

Heero was a different story. She could see the glass shards sticking into his skin all over his face and upper body, much like how his hand had been one of the first nights after he had found her. The blood trickled in telltale streams from the wounds, but his face looked to her with anger and determination, totally ignoring that fact that he was injured at all. Acting on instinct, she took the few precious moments of silence to rip up a kerchief shoved in her pocket and wrap up his torn limb. He was already on alert, and she had barely finished before she was suddenly dislodged from her seatbelt and half-thrown into the back of the car, the first sounds and signs of denting metal echoing through the interior of the car. Heero followed a moment later, sinking into an immediate crouch and pulling her down with him. He wrapped himself around her like a shield.

"Stay down." She did not have to hear his words to obey, secured in his arms even as bullets impaled the car mercilessly around them. They were positioned awkwardly, Relena finding herself halfway in Heero's lap as, together, they hunched low in the car, his arms coming up protectively to pull her close, his head hanging low beside her own so that she could feel his ragged breath shift her hair. All that was in her view was his bandaged arm and white shirt, her senses filled with him even beneath the hail of bullets raging outside. It was suffocating and secure all at once. There was not a breath of air.

Without warning, the pounding of bullets came to an abrupt halt, and the anxious princess felt her assumed bodyguard shift around her. His were the only sounds that reached her battered eardrums for those few, pain-staking seconds, and even those were distant.

"We're surrounded. We're going to have to make a run for it. Stay close and don't look back." His voice was muffled to her, and she guessed that he was most likely talking as loudly as possible without being heard outside the wreckage. The pocket the blast had created within her ears was making it difficult to hear anything beyond the windows, but Relena put faith in the words told to her. She nodded in understanding, and felt Heero shift one last time so that he was crouched by the car door nearest the building, his faithful handgun pressed into one palm while the other hand gripped one of hers fiercely but gently. "At my word..."

She held her breath without realizing it, concentrating all her energies and focus on the brown-haired man who was still protecting her against the world. Her own grip on his hand tightened perceptibly until he glanced towards her, two sets of eyes locking together. She took the moment to lean forward, still crouched as low as possible, and brush her lips against his. She did not have to speak for him to understand that she was grateful; she could see it in his eyes.

Heero turned back to the shattered window to signal the need to be ready, and Relena tensed behind him, their hands still locked together. She watched as his gun hand slowly turned the handle of the door just enough for it to unlatch without opening. This was it.

With a hard shove of his hand, Heero threw the door wide open.

* * *

"What's going on?" Zechs demanded as he stormed into the command center of Preventer HQ, ice-blue eyes blazing with cold fire as he looked from the frantic agents to the main screen of the room. His body went numb at the sight.

There was an aerial view of what the elder Peacecraft would have recognized as a war zone four or five years ago, a considerable-sized crater taking up a good portion of a city street with a stationary black luxury car nearby. The car looked trashed, and even from the range of the camera it could be seen that there were pieces of glass strewn about. There were dozens of men with guns surrounding the car.

"I want a team out there, NOW. Take all precautions, no chances. The lives of an agent and the Vice Foreign Minister are at stake. Move, people!" Une's commanding voice boomed through the room, and Zechs turned to find the brunette shouting out orders to the scrambling Preventers, her face contorted with fearful determination. He approached her as she finished directing the confused and worried officers in their duties, and waited with baited breath until she looked in his direction, calming himself as thoroughly as was possible. He supposed exploding at the commanding officer in charge would get him nowhere.

"Une," he said brusquely, the strain in his voice evident. She said nothing, but the expression on her face as she considered him was evident.

Relena was in trouble.

"I'm going down there." The matter was not up for debate, and the former Colonel did not protest the claim. Instead, she nodded wordlessly with what he could only think was grim resignation before turning back to her frantic employees. Zechs, waiting no longer, turned and left the room just as quickly as he had come, heading towards the elevator at the end of the hall. The ride seemed to take forever upon the man-made contraption, but when he finally stepped upon the floor holding both the armory and the soldier's barracks, he found himself bombarded with even more Preventers rushing to and fro. He ignored them in favor of tactical armor, weapons, and one of the powerful military jeeps being loaded.

He could not honestly say he was surprised by the sudden attack, for that seemed to be the tactics of the Osiris organization. He was coming to discover that they were much more powerful and cunning than had been initially determined, and Zechs found that he was irritated by the blatant lack of information the Preventer Organization – and especially the Gundam Pilots – had managed to retrieve about them, so that such a situation as the current one was so easily possible.

Furthermore, why Relena had not been more thoroughly protected, he could not fathom. So, naturally, he did the only thing that came to mind:

He blamed Heero Yuy.

It was the Gundam Pilot's fault that Relena had ever been in this mess in the first place. Was he not the one they were after? The thought made Zechs' blood boil in his veins.

It was not the he hated Heero. In fact, both men had come to an understanding with each other as time had passed. Both acknowledged the skills of the other, and the jobs they performed. But, nevertheless, Zechs bristled at the idea that Heero Yuy was the cause for his sister's pain. Why should Relena have had to suffer for the sake of some meaningless vendetta against a man she barely knew and had only met because of the war? And why was it always assumed that Relena's suffering was the answer to any sort of grudge or demand in the first place? If anything, such actions only invoked anger in all the wrong places.

Zechs supposed he would never understand the actions of men such as Dekim Barton and Zephyr Cronis.

Pulling on the final piece of tactical gear and checking the safety of the weapons now stowed away in his ammunition belt, Zechs rose to his feet, feel the weight of the clothing and arms upon his body before glancing around.

He was surprised to find Duo Maxwell staring back at him, absent of his usual infectious smile in light of an expression that reminded him of Yuy. Zechs noted the numb look in the former pilot's eyes. He frowned.

"I thought you were with—"

"Hilde? No." His gaze turned hard, but it was unflinching. Zechs supposed Maxwell had picked up some habits from Yuy, as he did not know much about Duo himself. Finally, he shrugged, the gesture ghosting after what might have been a carefree attitude. "She'd never forgive me if I didn't go out there. And, anyways, there's no point in me sitting around where I can't do anything, when there's a couple of my friends outside right now who could use my help." Zechs merely nodded his understanding.

Pausing to ensure that they were both prepared, he glanced back to the braided man before vaulting himself into one of the jeeps.

It was time to do something about Osiris.

* * *

He could hear her breathing harshly behind him, straining to keep up, but even so Heero could not relent his pace through the city streets. If they were to stop, even for a moment, the gunmen hunting after them would catch up. There were at least a dozen of them, Heero knew, if not more, and even he did not like those odds. So they ran, Relena trailing behind him with his hand gripping her wrist as hard as he dared and pulling her along. She said nothing, merely did her best to follow.

It pained him to force her to run at such a grueling rate. He had not forgotten her barefooted state, and knew that she would be hurting by now, but logic spoke that better her feet than her life, and he was unsure of the orders given to their pursuers.

Even so, he knew she was tiring, and that soon she would no longer be able to keep running, and so he took in his surroundings, observing his surroundings with a keen eye. It was then that he saw the small, dark nitch, tucked just beside a dumpster and most likely leading into one of the older warehouses that adorned that portion of the city. With little ceremony, he motioned Relena towards the opening, watching shrewdly as she slipped inside before grabbing a box of garbage, throwing himself backwards into the hole, and pulling the box with him to cover the entrance.

It was none-too-soon, for the next moment he was acutely aware of a chorus of booted feet clapping down the alley in the direction they had been headed.

Assured that they were safe for the moment, Heero finally turned to appraise the young Vice Foreign Minister.

Her hair was wild about her face, much of it loose from the bun that had held it back and now falling into her eyes and clinging to her lips and she panted to replenish lost breath. The motion caused her chest to heave with great effort. Her skin was adorned by small rivulets of blood, glass shards embedding themselves finely into her cheeks and hair, her arms smeared with red from the same, if not more numerous, injuries where there was more chance of scarring once the cuts were cared for. He could see the beginnings of a bruise forming beneath her shirt and across her shoulder where the seatbelt had kept her safely in place during the crash. She looked like a woman who had just been pulled from a war zone, and Heero hated to see her in such a state, though he supposed he did not look much better himself.

His bicep was torn to the point where he considered it useless. He would be unable to lift anything with the hand, and had barely been able to grip Relena's hand with it due to the numbed pain that came with such a severe wound. Even for him, the wound would require a certain amount of rehabilitation before he could fully use it again, as his body could not ignore torn muscle. He would be at an extreme disadvantage if he were to come face-to-face with Linnux again, or any of the other Osiris Generals, and he hated that he could do nothing to remedy the situation.

Snapping himself back to the present, Heero looked Relena over yet again before directing her towards a tower of boxes. From what he guessed, they were indeed inside a warehouse, and the mountains of shelves and storage units would at least provide shelter for the time being.

"We'll rest here. Une should be sending down a team to give us backup." She nodded breathlessly before allowing herself to sit down beside one of the crates, leaning against it with a sigh. He took the opportunity and sat beside her, wasting no time before unceremoniously ripping his shirt. He felt her start beside him.

"What are you doing?"

He did not answer, but instead turned to examine her face, his expression schooled, and then using the torn piece of fabric to gently begin cleaning her face of blood. He could do little about his own state of being, but for now he could tend to hers.

The sat in silence as he worked, Relena closing her eyes and simply allowing him to do what he wanted. She winced every so often as he was forced to pry out a shard embedded in the skin, but she did not complain otherwise. When he had finished her face, he moved on to her arms, careful when removing the glass to do as little damage as possible to the skin. It seemed an injustice to mar her skin if it could be prevented. Afterwards, he stripped off the rest of his tattered button-up and tore it into strips, wrapping them carefully around her forearms, and them moving on to do the same with her abused feet (which had consequently started bleeding as well sometime during their escape). When he was done, he sat back against the crate beside her, close enough that they were just brushing shoulders. The next moment, Relena's head was upon his shoulder, the rest of the discarded shirt being used to clean his own wounds by way of her careful and steady hands.

Heero considered, then, the words she had said to him earlier at Preventers HQ.

She had asked him to let her stay at his side… But how could he? How could he, when _this_ was the result? He couldn't even protect her from himself; how could he protect her from enemies?

The thoughts wounded him, though he would never say. He hated the idea of failing her, but he seemed unable to do anything else. It was out of the question, for her to be near him – Not after all that had happened. He knew he had hurt her when he had not answered, but what else was there? He could not allow her to continue getting hurt because of his presence. Perhaps, after this, he would let her live her life without his interference. And yet…

"They can't hurt us anymore, Heero." He was surprised be her words, and turned to look at Relena as she spoke, her voice calm and controlled as though she were performing a lecture for the ESUN. "They've already done their worst, what's happened already, and we're still here. Even--" she faltered, struggling with something, "Even if we were to be separated again, even if they… even if they raped me again, it wouldn't be the same as before." She looked up at him, her eyes strangely determined and bright. He had not seen her with such an expression since she had disappeared from his life three years ago. It was an expression which she had once worn when she had discredited Dekim Barton and Treize Khushrenada on two separate occasions; the expression she had worn when she had confronted Zechs on Libra: unflinching, unrelenting, resolved. "They made a mistake, when you found me. Now they can't take it back."

She drew close to him so that one side of their bodies were pressed together, one hand resting gently on his knee, while the fingers of the other lightly touched his forearm. She sighed softly.

"I know you don't want me by your side, that I'm a burden at times. I know I cause trouble for you, much more than I should. But, I also know I wouldn't be here without you. I would have died long before, as a pacifist in a war zone, or as a slave in a jail cell. Even if I can't be by your side in person, I want to stay with you, no matter what. I want to support you, even if it's only as much as welcoming you home. I'm not… I don't expect anything. I don't want you to think that I do. I don't want to hold you back, or hold you down. I just…" She was unable to finish the sentence, but he could feel her warm tears coursing over his bare shoulder.

He stayed silent, but his brow creased in an uncharacteristic scowl. He hated the idea that she thought herself a burden. Why did she not see that _he_ was the one at fault? He had been the cause of this. Even before, during the war, had it not been his intervention that had pulled her into the fray to begin with? For her to want to stay with him…

"You're not a burden. Without you, we'd all be lost." It was his only answer. What else could he say?

"Heero…"

"Don't make me repeat myself." It was more pleading than demand, and he remembered a time he had used it once before. She looked up at him then, the tears still flowing down her cheeks. His expression returned to his normal, impassive state, but his eyes softened fractionally at the sight of her crying. He lifted a hand and carefully cupped her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away the tears. She laughed and blushed beneath his ministrations, her eyes flickering to her lap, before sniffling uncertainly and looking up at him again. He found that she looked beautiful, even when bloody and disheveled.

Without thinking, he leaned his face down towards her own, registering her surprise before her eyes fluttered shut and their lips met uncertainly. He had kissed her before, but the action had been sudden and almost wholly one-sided. Now, she responded readily to him, her lips soft against his own, if not altogether shy, pressing and moving in a way that caused a rather electric sensation despite the mild nature of the kiss. His hand trailed down to rest at the nape of her neck, fingers settling in the wisps of her hair, and he felt her shiver beneath his touch. Then, all too soon, he found himself pulling away. Outside, he could hear a new commotion starting, and realized that the Preventer team had most likely arrived. It was time to move.

Wordlessly, he climbed to his feet and helped her to her own, tempted to carry her before she caught on and shot him a look that said otherwise. He accepted her unspoken answer, and instead caught her hand within his own. She paused, surveying the hand, before smiling and tangling her fingers with his own. Heero said nothing, but instead directed his attention towards getting them out of the warehouse.

Once outside, they started down the street at a slower pace than they had come, albeit he was sure to check vigorously for any remnants of Osiris, and soon they were parallel to the main road they had come off of from the crash. It was not hard to hear the ruckus being made by the two factions of soldiers. Heero made sure to keep his gun securely in his good hand, even while his wounded was occupied by Relena's hand. He was suspicious at how easily they had escaped from the soldiers, even though the explosion, admittedly, would have put most normal people out of commission for months if not permanently. The problem was that Zephyr Cronis obviously knew exactly with whom he was dealing. Heero did not accept the thought that if was simply lack of tactical planning.

And he was exactly right.

"_Miss Darlian_, so good to see you. _Yuy_." He knew the voice as soon as it was hissed out, its memory stuck in his mind like the controls of a mobile suit, and he knew that Relena recognized it too as her hand tensed in his own. Together, they turned to face the source of their pain and rage.

"Cronis."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Chapter 20, Heero and Relena are finally in Cronis' custody, and it's not looking good for them. Meanwhile, Duo is alerted to the abduction by an unlikely source, and Cronis starts to reveal why he's targeting Heero.**


	20. Desperate Situations

Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine, not mine... except for the parts that... belong to me... Right then...

_AN: peek ...Hehe... Hiya... Wow, so, yeah... It's been, what...::counts: About 5 months? ...I blame it on school. ALL of it. But, I have not failed you! It took lots and LOTS of time for me to get around to it, but, Look! A chapter::nervous laughter: ...Aw, man, just be happy, already!_

_But, on to other things, I actually have a question to pose to everyone who reads this. As you might know if you read my profile, I'm only planning 30 chapters for this story, and we're already at chapter 20. I have the other ten already planned out. On that note, I have a proposal:_

_Of those people who have read the One-Shot "What We Know", I've had a couple who have expressed interest in me making it into a story. So, I would like to get a concensus of how you guys, as the readers, would react to this idea. Personally, I think the change in plot would be a bit refreshing (less permanently-scarred, wounded-for-life angst, and more now-that's-just-not-fair angst), and I already have ideas for it, but I figure it would be good to see what you guys think about it. _

_**So, after the end of IYE, Yes to "What We Know" Continuation, or No, Give us something new? I'll be waiting to hear from you guys. **_

* * *

Chapter 20

Duo shoved the last of the Osiris soldiers into the back of the truck and made sure to slam the door nice and hard, satisfied when he heard a few choice curses from the prisoners inside the vehicle.

It had been a long battle between gun-wielding maniacs, some legal, others… not so much. It had taken almost an hour to get all the enemy soldiers under control, much less the time it took to then round up all those who were not severely injured or dead from either stupidity or a "lucky" bullet, which turned out to be a larger number than he had initially expected. Preventers and Osiris agents alike had been shot, but only a handful had been killed out of more than a hundred men when adding up both sides, and only another handful came off with serious injuries. Wufei was currently tending to these few, supervising them and taking damage reports while Sally Po cleaned wounds and bandaged them before sending them off with the rest of those captured.

The scene wasn't a pretty one, and the ESUN would be paying for the damages for months, specifically from the mess made by the initial explosion. Duo sighed at it all and brushed it aside, turning to look for any of the other former pilots.

He spotted Quatre first, the timid blond speaking with some of the Preventers who were resting beside the trucks. Duo noticed how the men's eyes lit upon at whatever the former Sandrock pilot was saying, and could only guess that he was praising them for the good work they had done. Quatre always had been inspiring without meaning to be…

"Yo! Q-man!" Duo placed his smiling mask in place, reverting to the state of fake happiness that he was so well known for while jogging swiftly over to the businessman. Quatre turned as he heard the call and offered his own warm, uncertain smile. The officers looked between the two and said nothing. "Hey, where's Trowa?" he asked, carefully drawing his friend to the side and away from the men as he did so. Quatre quickly picked up the hint and the two started to walk away from the threat of listening ears.

"He said he was going to find Heero and Miss Relena," Quatre said, glancing around and frowning at the thought. "But he's been gone almost since the fighting stopped. I'm getting worried, Duo." The braided pilot nodded in response, feeling the same tightening in his gut as Quatre must have felt at the moment. Heero and Relena weren't back yet, and Trowa had not returned with news of either the Vice Foreign Minister or the Preventer, which meant one of four things: they were trapped, one if not both were injured, something was delaying them, or they were captured. The last option made Duo's fists clench and his jaw tighten.

They had been so busy in fighting off Osiris that it had been impossible to send a party after the two most important MIAs. They had discovered Relena's car broken and bullet-ridden out in the streets where the explosion had gone off, the windows broken and one door ruthlessly flung open so that it had bent slightly in on itself. That was most likely Heero's doing. Unfortunately, upon reaching the car they had all come under gunfire by more men than they thought; men scattered on the tops of buildings and on the streets dressed in urban clothing besides just the gun-toting agents that had initially swarmed the street in pursuit of the couple. The battle had been long and difficult, and in the end the present safety of the Preventer agents had become more important than locating either the missing politician or her escort.

Duo cursed the small street-war.

"There's nothing left for us to do here right now. We can grab Wufei and Zechs and go looking. If Trowa finds anything he'll have no trouble getting in contact." Duo looked around and saw Wufei conveniently stalking over to them, his eyes grave and his posture tense. Behind him, the last of the trucks carrying the men sped off.

"It's been too long. Something's happened."

Duo nodded. "That's what Quatre and I were thinking. Heero wouldn't stay away this long without a reason, especially when the Princess is with him. We should go—"

"They've been taken."

The trio turned at the sound of Trowa's voice, the tall pilot emerging quietly from one of the nearby alleys. Although his face was as impassive and blank as always, an acknowledgement of the situation could be seen within his intelligent green eyes.

"Trowa," Quatre breathed softly, chilled by the news. "You mean…?"

"I followed their trail. It looks like they're both injured, one considerably more than the other, though I couldn't tell which. My guess would be Heero. They hid for part of the time in one of the warehouses, but their trail disappeared sometime after that on the road just parallel to this one. They were probably picked up by car, maybe by one of the Generals." Duo scowled, Wufei's face tightening even further.

"This isn't good…"

"Tell us something we don't know, Maxwell." The scowl deepened.

"Do we have any idea where they could have gone?" Quatre asked hopefully, looking between the others. Trowa shook his head once, gaining an exasperated sigh from Duo.

"So what are we gonna do? Knowing those guys, the Princess could be anywhere by now! We can't just go colony-jumping and hope to find them!" Duo growled out, agitated.

"We'll have to narrow down all the possible locations they could have fled to and go from there," Trowa said, looking back towards the alley he had come from.

"That will still take too long." Wufei glanced between the remained Preventers and the small group of his friends, frowning in thought.

Quatre sighed. "Wufei's right, but what else can we do? There are so many places they could go."

"You and Barton start searching the databases. Maxwell and I can start looking on foot. We'll have a better chance by that method, at least." The others nodded in agreement and were about to turn away from one another when they heard a low voice behind them.

"That won't be necessary."

They turned as a group, but it was Quatre who spoke up. "Milliardo Peacecraft?"

"No," Duo murmured, looking upon the stern blond man who stood before them with a bloody Osiris agent at his feet, blue eyes the iciest any of them had ever seen since the Eve Wars.

"Zechs Merquise."

* * *

Heero grit his teeth as the metal truck he had been shoved inside hit another pothole, effectively jarring his already mangled body against the floor and wall of the enclosure. His arms were chained and shackled behind his back, his feet suffering the same treatment so that it was almost impossible to move, along with the fact that both sets of chains were attached to the metal walls so that he could only shuffle so far forward. He was stuck.

He was shut up inside the bed of a large, military-issue truck, the type that should not still have existed after the wars. Across from him, Relena sat quietly, chained by the wrists to the opposite wall and curled up on the floor, watching him quietly.

Cronis had not exactly taken them by surprise out on the streets. Heero had been suspicious of the situation the moment the bomb had hit the car, and he had enough expectations to wield a gun towards the sadistic leader as soon as he had appeared before them. However, Cronis had, predictably, not come alone, so that at a moment's notice they had been surrounded by Osiris angets that had not been part of the initial battles on the street. Cronis was not stupid or proud enough to come without backup, Heero could at least give him that, and knowing that he was better off to Relena alive, Heero had quietly surrendered, knowing when even he was outmatched against so many armed men in so open a space. Had he been alone, he might have kept fighting, but that had not been the case.

Relena, for her part, had gone quietly and without struggle, though it had been painful for him to see the blatant fear in the farthest corners of her eyes. To the men who took her, they could see only that undeniable, unwavering pride and determination, but Heero knew better; he knew the very nuisances that made up her character and her features, and he would see the emotion she did not dare let her captors know. He would be damned if he let them ravage what little she had regained.

Now, she was watching him with a patient gaze; apprehensive, but trusting. The fears had faded into a dull acceptance of the situation. He looked back, unwavering.

"I'll protect you." His voice sounded loud to his own ears, even over the noise of the truck as it moved down what Heero guessed were dirt roads. They had been driving for hours now, apparently Cronis having no wish to leave the colony, and it was some time ago that the roads had become unsteady and rough, jerking them about in an uncomfortable fashion.

Relena blinked once before lowering her eyes to the metal of the floor. "I know, Heero. …Thank you… for everything you've ever done for me." She looked back up at him pointedly, conveying the gratitude he had always known was there, that he was convinced he did not deserve in the least.

"Hn."

Suddenly, the driver of the truck seemed to slam on the breaks as the truck came to an abrupt, jerking halt, throwing Heero forward against the restraint of his chains and causing fire to lace up his body. His teeth clenched at the sensation, but he ignored it to straighten himself and prepare as, a moment later, the double doors that had helped confine them were thrown wide and the area was suddenly swarming with soldiers, all rushing forward to hastily unchain them and shift from the stationary shackles to a mobile pair that fully covered his hands like steel oven mitts. He was jerked unceremoniously to his feet and half-dragged, half pushed from the truck into the custody of more soldiers that were standing guard outside. Twenty in all, each one armed; Cronis was taking no chances.

Heero found himself standing in front of what looked like a single-story complex in an abandoned part of the colony, the concrete walls of the building looking old and tarnished in the grey light of the evening. It was hard to make out the exact settings, his eyes able to pick out a few demolished buildings here and there in the same area, but no definitive landmarks that he could decipher. However, he was not given the time to dwell as he was hastily forced inside the building by the men surrounding him.

The halls were dim and clear of anyone else but the hoard that led their prisoners of war down the concrete constructs, past hallways that must have been barracks for the discrete heads thrown curiously out doorways for only a second, thought to have gone unnoticed, and down a long flight of stairs that had Heero's body screaming with pain and blood-loss by the time a landing was reached. He ignored the irritating urge to pass out, and pressed on, Prussian eyes as stony and unnervingly blank as ever. Beside him, he could sense the unease of some of the soldiers that were escorting them. He filed that knowledge away.

Like the building where he had first discovered Relena, this one also gave way to an underground labyrinth of hallways and doors, all metal and looking ten years newer than the surface structure. It was here that they halted for the first time, and Heero felt his senses flare at a sudden change in tactic.

_Relena…_

The guards had grown even more uncomfortable at his side as they walked, and Heero now realized why when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the young blond, bodily restrained and with a hand clamped securely over her mouth, being dragged down an opposite tunnel.

He reacted without thinking, his brain simply a mass of calculations as he dropped to the floor and quickly swept the legs out from all those in his radius. He did not wait for the men to fall, but shifted his weight while still crouched low, and projected himself over the bodies of the fallen, towards the direction Relena was being taken. The other guards, taken by surprise, were slow to react, and he had already made it half way down the hall before he was met with another wave, these being the men who had left to escort Relena, albeit a smaller party. He noted the guns being pointed at him. And promptly ignored them, brandishing the less-injured shoulder to the guards before bodily plowing into them and using the weight of the metal confinement of his hands to force the rest out of his way until he had a clear path of his target: two guards trying desperately to contain a struggling Vice Foreign Minister while debating whether it was in their best interests to simply drop their cargo and run. They paled noticeably when he took one last power-filled sprint towards them, adrenaline and the raw, overwhelming need to _protect_ the only things driving him forward.

"Heero!"

He heard Relena shriek right before it hit him, turning his head to realize there was one last hidden passageway to his right and seeing the body hurling towards him before he was suddenly winded and crumpled against a wall, his body feeling broken like so many shards of glass. Still, it was not until his forced himself into a hasty, unsteady crouch that he saw realized he was staring down the barrel of a gun, directly into a pair of dead, dark gray eyes.

"I figured you would do something stupid like that," a condescending, dangerous voice said quietly, the eyes not bothering to shift from their lock with his own even as Heero saw him shake out what much have been a stinging limb from the blow that had just been dealt. He simply narrowed his eyes in response, which only angered the gun-wielding adversary before him, teeth gritting irately before Heero felt the butt of the gun strike him across the cheek. He felt himself fall, and could only to enough to not let his head crack upon the floor. Distantly, he heard Relena scream again.

Zephyr Cronis glanced up, towards where he knew the guards were still holding her, and growled out orders to take her to "the room." By now, Heero was in a daze, the adrenaline of before draining away into a wave of pain that even he could not ignore, his body in agony. It had not been so long since his last beating by an Osiris member, and after being blown up and ripped apart, Heero found that even his body could only endure so much punishment without proper time to heal.

Therefore, it was useless for him to even attempt a struggle when Cronis bent down, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him away from the direction Relena had gone.

"You are a very stupid man, Heero Yuy?" As they walked, Heero registered the sound of Cronis' voice in his head, his mind only subconsciously picking apart what was said to him. "I find it appalling that a child such as you could bring an end to such a glorious war. Then again, it was not you who truly ended the war; the Gundam Pilots were simply tools, a means to an end. No, it was not you who ended the war. A _greater _man was responsible, though you and that slut of a woman have since tarnished his memory and turned him into a weakling.

"I asked him once, what it was that he found so intriguing about you and that little whore. Do you know what he told me?" There was a low chuckle that sounded muddled and gravelly in his mind. "I remember his exact words, something I'm sure trash like you never took to time to do; he said, 'There are very few who fight with such purity. I admire their blindness.' …Blind. That was all any of you were back then, and that's all you'll ever be, but here you are, captured and chain like the worthless dog you are, but still breathing. It disgusts me that only the scum survive the majestic Waltz of History."

There was a casual halt in the monologue, and Heero realized that a door was being opened and he was being thrown roughly through it, landing on his side with a restrained, but painful grunt. He blinked rapidly to clear his senses of the daze the blow to the head had caused him, but in the end he was only able to recognize the bang and screech and metal scraped on metal and closed him in to a dark, windowless cell.

Left to regain himself, Heero's muddled brain began to organize itself between the sudden burst of information and resentment he had just received from Cronis, and the sources by which he could free himself to follow after Relena.

"_I'll protect you_."

No matter what grudge or hatred Cronis or any other Osiris member held towards him, he would not let her be hurt again.

With that thought, Heero forced himself shakily to his feet and began to blindly search his small enclosure for any chance at escape.

* * *

**Next Chapter**, 21 _The other pilots arrive on scene and are greeted by the four generals and lots of gunfire. Heero works to get free and get to Relena, while Cronis prepares to have his way again, with some unexpected retaliation._


	21. HideandSeek

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn't mine. Be happy.

AN: Wow... This one actually came out in a civil amount of time. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 21

It had begun to rain on the colony by the time the five pilots were closing in on their destination, Preventer forces following behind them en masse as they headed towards the location that Zechs had managed to beat out of the Osiris agent. That same agent was currently lying chained and bound in the back of the truck Duo was sharing with twenty other agents, including Zechs himself.

They had been driving for hours now, the time that passed leaving both men tense and apprehensive for what they might find. They had left the main road only a half hour before, but the dirt road they now found themselves upon had quickly turned to mud with the coming of the rain, the larger military vehicles they used to carry all the agents making it difficult to maneuver through the run-down and neglected area of the colony. Around them, buildings were crumbling or already collapsed, obviously lacking care for years now, and no driver had yet reported sighting any other humans as they drove.

Along with the rest of the men, Duo was stunned. He had thought that portions of the colonies such as these had long since been cleaned up and rebuilt. After the war, the ESUN, especially during the time before Relena's kidnapping, had made vast efforts to erase the devastating traces the Eve Wars had left behind. Massive teams of government workers and volunteers alike had come together over multiple occasions across both the colonies and Earth to repair those portions of the Colonies and Earth countries that had been almost obliterated. For there to still be so large a portion of an otherwise prosperous colony still in ruins…

It was clear that the newest version of Osiris had been at work for a much longer time than was originally thought, to deter or even hide such a place from the ESUN and the Preventers alike. Or perhaps the organization had never truly died out the first time…

"Maxwell." Duo's thoughts were broken by the crackling of the inbuilt radio and he shifted one hand off the steering wheel in order to take up the receiver.

"What's up, Wu-man?" He grinned to himself as he asked, knowing Wufei hated the little nickname. There was a telltale pause, most likely the Chinese man trying his hardest to not start screaming at him, before the reply came, the voice sharper than before.

"We're coming up on the compound. Get your men ready to engage. We don't need any idiots running into a battle they're not prepared for." The grin widened.

"Ouch! That was a blow to the heart! Why are you always so cruel, Wuffie?"

"Maxwe-!" Duo positively giggled as he heard the other transmission being suddenly interrupted, followed by a much quieter voice.

"We'll see you there, Duo. Watch your back."

"Will do, Q-man! Over and out!"

Placing the receiver back down by the radio, Duo instantly sobered, his eyes intent on the road. Beside him, he knew Zechs was looking him over, reading the instant change in demeanor. It was a side of himself he rarely showed to the other pilots. Heero had been the only one who really understood how much of his personality was a mask, and how much was honest, but the others were still guessing. With Zechs, however, Duo found it almost pointless to try and play the happy, good-spirited man he always pretended to be. If he needed to be serious, he would be serious, and, like Heero, Zechs would simply accept it.

It was odd what one learned about a former enemy during times of peace…

Finally, they pulled to a stop in front of an old, broken down military complex, the concrete walls seeming to crumble before their eyes. There was no attempt to cover up the fact that Osiris had made its base here: the tire tracks in the mud discernable enough. But, as expected, there was no one in sight, no one waiting. It appeared as though they would have to do this the hard way.

"Ambush," Zechs said. It wasn't a question.

"Yeah… And probably another underground fortress like the last. It'll be hell just to get to the lower levels since they're already expecting us. What do you think?" He glanced to the older man, violet eyes watching as he seemed to mull over the situation in his mind. They both knew that the Osiris soldiers were simply waiting for them to leave the safety of the trucks before firing at them.

"Yuy is inside with Relena."

"That's my guess. You know those two: you don't get one without the other." His words earned him a glare, but Duo simply smirked knowingly. Zechs would never fully approve of Heero for Relena, but Duo suspected that he would tolerate no one else. "I'm sure he's figuring out a way to save the Princess right about now, knowing that guy, but he's probably pretty torn up if the wreckage of the car was any indication. He'll need some backup sooner or later…"

A hard look passed between the two men, before they shared a distinct understanding. Duo smirked again, a genuine gesture.

"Right, then… This'll be a piece of cake." With that, both men signaled the soldiers in the back and the Preventer agents prepared to throw themselves into the heart of enemy territory.

* * *

Below the compound, Relena sat in a confined little office space, the plush setting of the office and the lack of any chains or shackles her only reassurance that she was not in a jail cell. The only light in the room came from a small desk lamp, which she had had to turn on herself after much groping around in the dark, and for the time being it had provided a comfort that she had not often had in times past. She had already searched the room for any objects that might be used for a weapon, but had come up empty and simply allowed herself to sit in the single chair provided in the room, unable to do anything else for the time being.

They had thrown her in here upon Cronis's orders, locking her in, almost an hour ago, but nothing had happened yet. She had simply been left alone, almost forgotten, and that allowed her mind to wander to what had happened.

Heero had…

The memories flashed before her. Before this time, she had seen him shot and otherwise injured, but it had always been a rarity that she was present when he was wounded. In the past couple of weeks, she had seen him take so many wounds in her name it made her stomach turn, but this took the bait.

As they had been led down the hall, the soldiers had suddenly grabbed her and clamped a hand over her mouth, dragging her in a direction opposite that which Heero was headed. Somehow, he had realized this and has taken the guards by surprise by sweeping their legs out from under them. She had watched as he had pivoted himself around and vaulted over the bodies before running after her, using his weight and his restraints to forcefully plow through the remaining soldiers. Seeing his success at overcoming the soldiers, Relena had begun to struggle in her captor's arms, squirming and doing her best to break away, and she had almost succeeded before she seen the almost unnoticeable hallway and the figure that crouched there with silver fire blazing in otherwise unfeeling eyes. She had screamed out a warning, but it was too late as Cronis drove himself into Heero from the side and ground himself into the opposite wall with a force that made her head spin from watching.

Heero had crumpled like a rag doll, already bleeding and broken from the wounds he had sustained from the bombing. She had been amazed when he had summoned up the strength to somehow rise to his knees, but by that time Cronis had pulled a gun. She had screamed again when the butt of the gun was brought down upon the face of the unyielding soldier, and had looked on in horror as he had then been dragged away like some broken toy.

Fear flooded her body for the Prussian-eyed man. Never before had she seen Heero in such a state, even when he had collapsed into her arms after the Mariemeia incident. He had looked so utterly torn to pieces, his body useless. She already knew Cronis held no love or admiration for Heero, and she could only imagine what the cruel leader of Osiris might do to him just for the sake of amusement.

She shuddered.

"Heero…"

The door rattled suddenly before clicking, the distinct sound of unlocking. Her eyes snapped up warily and Relena was instantly out of her chair, fists clenched by her sides while she tried to look as dignified and proud as possible. She was not surprised when the tall form of Zephyr Cronis stepped into view.

"Ms. Darlian, I am sorry to keep you waiting," came the cruel drawl, the grey-eyed man ignoring her and he waved off the guards standing behind him in the doorway. The door was promptly closed and the clicked sounded once again.

Locked in. With Cronis.

Relena had to stop herself from visibly trembling. Unbidden memories rushed forth to her mind, where she relived in a flash all the thing that had been done to her by and at the allowance of this man. Her legs felt weak, but she forced herself to stay upright and face him with the strength she was determined to have.

He took one, sweeping look at her and sneered.

"I see that boy has put ideas into your head while you were gone. Do you really think that he, or any other of those foolish little children, can actually help you? Do you believe that you can really fight against me?" he asked, mockingly casually as he regarded her from across the room.

Relena steeled herself against him, schooling her expression so that her eyes blazed with defiance, raising her chin against his preliminary attempts to break her spirit. "Yes. I will always believe in Heero."

This appeared to be an unsatisfactory answer, as Cronis clenched his jaw, the motion subtle but all too pronounced after all the time she had been given to observe him since her first abduction. He began to circle behind her, a wide movement that mirrored their very first encounter with each other, and she was given the distinct impression of a predator ready to lung for the kill. She stood her ground, undaunted.

Suddenly, he was behind her, his body pressed flush against hers and his arms locking her tightly against him like bands of iron. Her heart jumped in her chest, her mind fighting her body's inherent urge to increase the rate of her breathing as fear laced through her. He laughed in her ear, low and cruel, before allowing one hand to play over her breasts before snaking down to slide under her shirt, the other arm keeping her in place. Her blood ran cold.

"My dear, sweet, _naïve_ little princess… Don't you know that you're already mine?" His hand dipped dangerously low, past the waistband of her jeans, and that was when Relena reacted, panic driving her to throw her head back so that skull met face in a sickening crack. At the same time, she used what small amount of freedom she had to drag the heel of her foot down his shin with all the force she could muster, then elbow him firmly in the ribs as his grip loosened. He released her and she stumbled away from his grip, teetering precariously as she turned to face him.

Her head spun from where she had hit him, but she noticed with small satisfaction the way a generous stream of red streaked from his nose and dripped from his chin. Unfortunately, the white rage painted on his features was enough to kill any feeling of triumph. Relena dove out of the way, tumbling across the office, as he dived at her with something akin to a snarl.

"You little slut! You think a few lessons in self-defense will really help you now?" He lunged again as he spoke, and this time Relena was barely able to avoid him, ending up trapped against the farthest wall from the doorway, both Cronis and the desk with the lamp blocking her from the exit. His face twisted into a sick expression of arrogant victory and he was suddenly calm once again, approaching slowly, once again the careful stalker. There was nowhere for her to go to without him grabbing her.

Even so, she gathered up her strength and attempted to break past him, only to feel an arm hook across her neck and slam her back against the wall, crushing her windpipe. She could only choke and cough as he once again pinned her, closing her in. This time, his body was the leverage that held her while his hands moved freely, violating her with every stolen, unwanted touch, one slipping down into her jeans and causing her to cry out in sickened outrage, her heart aching at the thought that she would once again become the plaything of this… this monster of a man.

She continued to struggle against him, but it was useless, his weight crushing her to the point of suffocation when she tried.

Desperately, she did the last thing she could do.

She screamed.

* * *

Duo dived behind a truck as an explosion rocked the battlefield, sending Osiris and Preventer alike flying backwards. He cursed loudly to himself, his ears temporarily deaf from the backlash, and took the opportunity to roll under a truck and incapacitate three more men before being forced to roll back.

All around men were fighting, bullets flying and even the occasional bomb being thrown from both sides. It was chaos, and, he was sure, death. It was war.

Taking the short moment he had to rest, he shot a piercing glance towards the entrance to the complex in front of which the battle was taking place. It had been barricaded with soldiers and plates of metal, any Preventer who drew close to it meeting a bloody and cruel end, filled with bullet holes. However, there was one man that had slipped through, unnoticed, when the fray had first began, and it was upon this person that Duo was banking everything.

_You'd better bring them back alive, you bastard_, Duo thought, before once again throwing himself into the midst of the battle.

* * *

Metal met concrete in a hazardous screech, the sound filling the small cell as Heero tried futilely to test the resistance of the encasing shackles around his hands. The restraints were untouched, still firm around his hands. Unfortunately, in the dark of the cell it was impossible to tell if they had taken any other significant damn in the handful of times he had smashed the casing against the concrete wall, but they were otherwise untouched by the onslaught.

Heero frowned, his head still swimming, and looked towards the smallest sliver of light the dared shine forth from beneath the doorway.

He had examined the entire cell, as thoroughly as was possible in his current state, but had found nothing of interest that would free him from his current confinement. The small room was void of any other objects beside himself, and it was near impossible to manage anything without the use of his hands. His only chance now was the two guards that had come to attend to his cell a few minutes before, who were now talking amongst themselves.

He already knew he could not feign illness or some dire circumstance. Cronis had more than likely informed them that it was no trouble if he were to meet an untimely end. Currently, he could hear the idle chatter of the men, relaxed and unconcerned for their positions.

His eyes narrowed at the slit of light.

Although the cell itself was relatively secure, Heero wondered over how sturdy the door was…

Well, if they had no trouble with him dying, they might have issue with his trying to escape.

Steeling his body, Heero suddenly rushed at the door, slamming his full weight against the metal so that it left a fine impression where his uninjured shoulder made contact. His entire body cried out with the movement, but he force himself to stay on his feet, moving backwards away from where he had just hit and preparing for another rush. Outside, the guards had gone silent.

He took the opportunity and threw himself forward again, hitting in almost the exact same place so that the dent increased and the door creaked dangerously on its hinges.

"What the fuck…?"

Again, he rushed forward. This time, the metal screeched in rapt protestation.

"Hey, knock that off!"

Again. Once more in the same place and he would have the door off its hinges anyways.

Prepared to throw himself one last time at the only barrier preventing him from looking for Relena, he stopped instantly when there was the distinct click of a lock being turned, the guards throwing open the bent and abused door and rushing at him. Heero took the opportunity and bent low, driving his shoulder at the first man so that he was caught in the stomach, then shifting to throw the body back behind him. The next man came at him an instant later and Heero dropped, using his shackled hands as support as he cleanly swept the man to the floor, his head audibly cracking against the ground as he landed. He did not stir after, out cold, and Heero turned to the first man who was now struggling to his feet.

It had been too long a time since he had been separated from Relena now. There were too many possibilities regarding what could have happened to her after such an extended period, especially due to the manner in which he had been parted from her. Cronis's words still echoed in his ears.

"_Take her to '_the room_'" _He did not like the implications of those words.

Knowing this, he approached the man that was still conscious and kneed him in the chest, forcing him back down to the floor. Once there, Heero followed, firmly planting his knee over the man's throat and pressing hard enough to cause the man's eyes to widen in fear.

"Take these off." He motioned to the shackles binding his hands and the man shakily moved his own down to his belt, fumbling for the release mechanism and activating it against the gloves. They fell away with little trouble.

Once freed, Heero made a point to knock the man out with a careful punch before climbing to his feet. His hesitation only lasted a moment before he was out the door and weaving through the hallways.

His number one priority was finding Relena, and he would be damned if anything had happened to her.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 22, Finders Keepers**, while Heero and Relena struggle internally, outside the war with Osiris has grown desperate as reinforcements come to join the fight against Duo and the other Preventers.


	22. Finders Keepers

Disclaimer: Still not mine. ::sigh::

AN: Wow, it's been a REALLY long time. I'm sorry for how absolutely, horribly long this has taken, but I fully intend on finishing this story by the end of this year. We're almost at the end!

For those of you who haven't looked at my profile recently, there's some status updates there and a short talk about my intentions for my stories.

Enjoy the long-overdue chapter!

* * *

Chapter 22

It was dark inside the topmost level of what was most likely another underground complex. The lights had long since been put out; by the faction or by the colony, he did not know, but Zechs suddenly found himself immersed in darkness. There was no light whatsoever that could even allow his eyes to adjust. However, he was unfazed by the handicap, maneuvering skillfully through the complete darkness that was only found in man-made constructs. His steps were silent upon the metal floor of the building, hands searching blindly for any signs of a door or opening.

His mind was racing through all the possibilities of what might have happened so far in the few hours since Relena had been kidnapped, the rage he felt barely restrained. When he finally found Cronis and Yuy, there would be hell to pay: one for all the pain he had inflicted on Relena to begin with, and the other for dragging her into it all in the first place. It was, after all, Heero Yuy's fault that any of this was happening. It was Heero that Osiris was truly after, and his fault that Relena had been taken at all those three long years ago.

Oh, yes, there would be hell to pay.

But, first things first.

Zechs came to an abrupt halt as he felt the slightest breeze of displaced air: signs that there was a doorway nearby. He turned and knelt, hands running patterns over the floors and walls for any signs of cracks or uneven ground. In the darkness, a grim smile crossed his lips as his fingers traced the miniscule lines carved into the wall just to his right, the latch almost screaming at him once he had located the door itself.

With a mild flick of his wrist, Zechs Merquise watched as the wall clicked and swung ever so subtly inwards, rays of formerly hidden light peaking out from the newly opened entranceway.

Pushing the door further inward, the Lightning Count stepped inside the passageway and closed the door behind him, descending down a dimly-lit stairwell towards whatever challenge awaited him at the bottom.

He was going to enjoy this.

* * *

It was the equivalent of a village fighting an empire: outnumbered, outpowered, outmaneuvered, and (in many cases) outclassed. As the Preventers were still a fledgling group of agents, having not even been around for a decade, most of the officers were still in some form of training or another, and those who had joined from the war were many times the people who had been positioned far away from the fighting in command centers and maintenance teams. It showed. They were being slaughtered like peasants beneath an imperial army. Half the Preventer forces were already injured, some dead. Those who could still fight were trapped in a losing battle with casualties rising by the moment. It was pathetic, but not surprising.

Wufei scowled as bullets flew past his head, felling an agent to his right and one farther behind. He did not glance up as he heard the painful grunts and heavy thuds of bodies hitting the ground. It was the war he had long thought lost, and Wufei was a soldier who knew nothing but to keep fighting, even the battles he could not win.

The forces of Osiris were far superior to the Preventers, but this was almost a predictable outcome. The Preventers were a force formed of young men and women who had never seen the battlefield and veterans who were too tired or too damaged to do more than paperwork. Those with the aptitude to control the battlefield were stuck behind computer consoles while untrained children were left to protect the innocent and keep the peace. Osiris was an underground army. Their superiority came in the hard-earned skill of each member and the battle-hardened senses within each soldier. They were fighting the soldier of the Eve Wars -- the soldiers that had been left with nothing but the knowledge of how to wage war.

They could not win this war as they were.

The small Chinaman dove from behind his cover of a Preventer's truck as one of the numerous enemy bullets finally punctured the weakening metal and hit home in the gas tank. As he rolled, fire erupted behind him and shrapnel sprayed in all directions from the decimated vehicle. He did not flinch as he rolled up to his knees behind another of the trucks.

Black eyes swept the turmoil that surrounded them, taking in the carnage and the bodies that lie strewn about. Ever since his final conversation with Treize, he had begun to map out the battles he fought as a Preventer, and this was no exception. Almost instantly he picked out the other Gundam pilots amidst the chaos: Quatre with his quiet, powerful determination as he huddled behind a stack of metal crates and planned strategies with other agents; Trowa, silent but efficient, felling Osiris soldiers left and right while covering the inexperienced men around him; Maxwell as he slipped back and forth between lines of fire with the stealth he was known for. Zechs was nowhere to be found, but Wufei could guess to where he had disappeared.

They had played this scene before, many times. It was ironic, really – even in a time of peace, they were sentenced to eternal warfare, with Yuy and the pacifist princess at the heart of it all, beyond everyone's reach.

That was the way of their wars.

Brow furrowing further, Wufei continued to throw himself into the hopeless battle before him, forgetting how often losing battles seemed to turn in their favor as he fought his never-ending war.

* * *

Heero had been forced to blindly navigate more compounds than he could think to count in his lifetime, many of them maze-like and monstrous while crawling with enemies who knew far more than he about their surroundings. He had freed himself from restraints that should have been indestructible while dodging bullets and subduing desperate soldiers on their last nerve. He had rescued men, women and children alike – whether knowingly or otherwise – and often without support. But, for once, even Heero Yuy found himself frustrated.

He had met opposition around almost every corner, forcing him to need to all but plow his way through the halls, only to meet dead ends and pitch-black hallways with locked metal doors. Furthermore, there was no ventilation piping or distinct markings by which to direct his movements. Whoever had designed the Osiris base had done so with the intent purpose to confuse and confound even the most highly trained operatives. What vents could be found were built as a part of the wall itself and every hallway looked the same at the last. However, the architect had underestimated one thing: people.

The keys he had taken off an unconscious officer felt heavy in his hand, his entire body screaming as he limped down one of the rare, empty halls. It had taken him nearly a quarter of an hour to understand the schematics of the compound, but once he had felled the first four groups of soldiers it had become simple. The unconscious soldiers had left an unexpected trail to follow. The building was a series of interlocking squares within a much larger box structure, creating the illusion that one was making progress down elaborate hallways when they were actually walking in circles. Of these squares, those that met with the outer perimeter had walls to simulate separate hallways that really just divided up one side of the square into two halves. After discovering this, it was only a matter of remembering where he had come from, especially when backtracking due to a wall. But that was not the frustrating part.

Almost all the rooms were soundproof, and most closed and locked. There was no efficient way to search for Relena and Cronis that did not waste precious time he already did not have. Not for the first time in his life, it was an all or nothing situation. If he did not find Relena soon…

Heero's fist clenched and his jaw tightened imperceptibly as he ran through the maze of hallways.

He would find her; there was no question. He would find her and he would eliminate Cronis.

Bleeding, shirtless, and half-crippled, Heero Yuy disappeared around yet another corner with all the finesse of a man untouched, prussian eyes burning with a mission.

* * *

They were getting their asses kicked. The casualties were growing and the men falling everywhere, but namely on the Preventers' side.

However, if there was one thing the Preventers had become known for in the first few years of their existence, it was resilience. Where one soldier went down, two more sprang up to cover their comrade. Despite their inexperience compared to Osiris, the Preventer agents were as unrelenting as the woman who had formed them, and despite being outpowered they were holding what little ground they could. In fact, it appeared they might even have gained some ground since the battle had begun.

Duo Maxwell swelled with pride for the valiant men surrounding him. They were outgunned and outclassed, but they fought with everything they had. Losing battle or not (that was the story of his life anyways, wasn't it?), he was proud of the people beside him. At this rate, though it would be difficult, it was quite possible to slowly overcome the opposing militants. Already Quatre was huddled behind a pile of reinforced crates, strategizing with leading agents while Trowa covered the area ahead with a spray of bullets.

Duo smirked knowingly. They would not lose this. They _**could not**_ lose this.

With that thought his gaze shifted around the truck where he was crouched to eye the heavily guarded doorway of the Osiris headquarters. It seemed like forever since Zechs had disappeared inside, and Duo could not help but wonder after the man and the two friends trapped inside.

Heero was not one to be kept from his goals, Duo knew that well, but when it concerned Relena the world seemed to shift for the stoic soldier. In the past, goals had changed just to accommodate the Princess, and although Duo had never disagreed, it was a dangerous game to play with a man like Zephyr Cronis. Running blind was exactly how Cronis wanted them to be, and Heero's predictability concerning Relena played perfectly into the trap. Duo had never been much of a strategist, but even he knew this. Heero knew it too, he was sure, but the difference was that Heero did not care. He would die for her without blinking.

"Anything for the one you love," he muttered the familiar words, sighing to himself. There was just no helping that man.

Surveying the scene once again as he mechanically fought against the enemy, Duo was pleased to note that the members on the opposing force seemed to be dropping in numbers, slowly but surely. Perfect. Just a few more down and the remaining forces would be prime targets for a few well-placed bombs and a final rush. Motion to his side told him Quatre had picked up arms, finished with his strategizing. Afterwards, when they had subdued enough of the guerrillas, perhaps he could slip inside and—

"Flash bomb!" He dove without thinking just as the blast rushed over him, jarring him to the bone and causing his head to spin. Suddenly his ears were clogged with the force of the explosion and all he could feel was disoriented, the world seeming to slow to a crawl as he gazed at the others nearby who were in the same state, if not worse.

Then there were booted feet rushing past so fast that he felt nauseous from the movement and he was surrounded by half a dozen guns, distant voices shouting incoherent words. He was hauled roughly his feet and nearly fell when they released him, knees buckling dangerously before he was caught.

Disconcerted, half deaf, and stunned from the bomb, Duo did his best to take in the new situation. Suddenly, all the Preventers alongside him were under gunpoint, many dazed, bleeding, or unconscious. In the distance Duo could see Quatre and Trowa in the same situation, the right side of Quatre's face a mass of blood while the taller man supported him, looking blankly up at their captors. Trowa spoke, something Duo's addled brain could not lip-read, and the butt of a rifle came down in answer, causing the quiet man to stagger. Quatre shouted at the man with the rifle, but whatever happened after that was lost from Duo's attention as a new commotion surged at the edge of his vision. He was just in time to see Wufei bodily tackled and pinned by five separate soldiers, the black eyes of the Chinaman fierce.

What had just happened? Where had the reinforcements suddenly come from? The world seemed ablur and before he knew it he was being forced forward, away from the other Preventers and the steel walls of the headquarters. He half-walked and was half-dragged back into the trees before being unceremoniously thrown to the ground in front of a new pair of boots. He felt as though he would vomit right there from the nausea.

"Maxwell, huh? Well, good enough," came a gruff voice from above. Gritting his teeth and fighting the urge to release all the contents of his stomach, Duo rose up shakily until he was on his knees and able to look in the direction of the voice. An older man stood before him, perhaps in his fifties or sixties, all muscle and sinew in a lean, fit frame that was unusual for a man of his age. Brown eyes looked down to meet Duo's violet gaze, sharp as any man's half his age who had lived through the Eve Wars. He was a soldier without even needing to say anything. "Well, come on boy, on your feet." The voice was stern, commanding, but without the forceful cruelty, the impatience he was so used to hearing as a prisoner of war (he had been one enough times, after all). Slowly, his head swimming, Duo complied, watching the old man all the while with wary eyes.

Duo knew him without needing to ask, the picture clear in his mind from the original briefing of the Osiris generals.

"Schinzer," he said, his voice sounding gravely and distant to his ears. The old man chuckled and crossed his arms, a broad, confident smile lighting his face. Duo was surprised at the gesture, but took it in stride. Quatre had said Schinzer was unusual.

"You know me then. Good. Saves me time," Schinzer said, the smile warping into a grin. "As I'm sure you've noticed, our reserve forces will have, in a matter of minutes, defeated and subdued the entire Prevent faction sent here today. As we speak, my soldiers are securing the area and your men, including the other Gundam pilots. The Chinese one, Wufei, is being quite the problem from what I hear, but he did act quite the little fireball when we last met. Though, I will have to talk to the man who gave Barton that nasty gash. I distinctly told them to subdue, not to injure. What can you do with young men these days? Always willing to be so violent, abusing prisoners, using their guns like sledgehammers. It never did like that method, you know – beating a man with the butt of a gun. That's what fists were made for, I say. You young ones have a lot to learn about what it means to intimidate a man with force… But that's neither here nor there." Schinzer sighed heavily before waving away the ridiculous tangent. Duo gawked.

Was this what he was going to end up like forty years from now? He shuddered at the thought.

"What the hell are you talking about, ya old crazy?" He finally managed to ask. Schinzer, if anything, drew on the outburst.

"Well, you didn't think there would just be that little group of boys out there guarding Osiris now, did you? Really, boy, you've got to give us more credit than that," the grey-haired general laughed heartily, apparently amused by the thought. "It's like playing 'capture the flag,' when you realize that you're on the opposite side of the field and you just got tagged. Time to go to the prison and all, right? Well, you and your friends just got tagged, Maxwell."

Duo's jaw dropped. He was sure it hit the ground at his feet. What in the hell…?

"Anyways, I'd best put you with the others now. Bound hand and foot, of course. I'm not so old I don't know the craft of my enemies. No worries, though, my men will treat you fair enough if you just behave. I've got things to do now, so just sit back and let me handle it. It'll all work out soon enough." And with that the older man walked away, a hand rising in farewell over his shoulder.

Duo was left dumbfounded and, for once, speechless, as the Osiris soldiers dragged him away.

* * *

The room spun as she whirled away from Cronis, staggering dangerously as she struggled to regain her balance. Her head felt as though it had been knocked against concrete and she was sure she was a bloody mess by now: shirt torn and partially ripped away to expose her chest, blood running down her chin and cheeks. She could feel the skin next to her right eye swelling from the jagged gash it had suffered. Across from her, steel eyes watched her with murderous intent.

More than ever before, Relena had fought Cronis until they were both a mess of blood, scratches, and bruises, and she had managed – for now – to slip away from his grasp when he pinned her. The first time, her scream had startled him into drawing away enough for her to hook his calf and trip him. She had never made such a sound in their previous encounters, so the noise had had the desired effect. Unfortunately, such a trick worked only once upon the enraged leader. The second time she had been lucky enough to work her arm free and elbow him with all the force she could muster so that the wind was knocked from his lungs and she had clawed at him to release her as he fought to regain his breath, separating herself from him by the desk once again. The look her gave her now said she would not be so lucky a third time.

They circled the desk warily, moving when one moved and stopping at the same time. Relena made it a point to keep her back towards the door and the open room. The problem was that as soon as she moved backwards towards the doorway, he would be on her and she would be out of luck. Unfortunately, at the same time she knew the door was locked tightly, so even if she reached it in time such an escape would do her no good. Her body trembled at the thought that she was once again trapped with this man in a room with nowhere to go.

_Heero…_

His face surfaced in her mind, his blue eyes defiant even when beaten down. He would come for her. It was all she could hope for and everything she believed in. He would come, so she just had to hold out for a little longer.

Suddenly, Relena dove to the side as Cronis vaulted the desk itself, almost on top of her before she threw herself away from him. She landed roughly on the carpet and scrambled up to her feet, attempting to get to the opposite side of her attacker once again. Her first steps forwards were halted by the hand that snagged her collar and yanked her harshly back, choked her at the same moment that she felt that same hand grip the back of her neck painfully tight. She cried out, but the grip only tightened before shoving her roughly forward in the desk. Almost immediately, he was upon her, pinning her legs with his own and pressing her arms down against the hard wood so that it was impossible to rise. She struggled, but was held fast, and this time he loomed too far out of reach to use her head. His weight was almost suffocating as he pinned her down.

There was no escaping the hold he had on her now.

"You could only _fathom_ how much I will enjoy breaking you again, my dear princess." His voice above her chilled her very blood.

_**Heero!**_

* * *

He surveyed the battle from back in the trees, giving orders as they were asked of him and observing the Preventers from agar. All four of the Gundam pilots were bound completely, practically hogtied, but he could already see the bonds of both Duo Maxwell and the boy claiming to be Trowa Barton loosening considerably. His men were oblivious as the boys freed themselves slowly.

Schinzer had to smile grimly to himself. The pilots had risen further than his expectations had ever allowed. He had expected half-empty shells left over from the war – soulless warriors who had no purpose without someone to give them orders. These boys had surprised him with their determination and drive. They thought for themselves and fought to protect what they themselves saw as important. It was inspirational, really.

Unfortunately, they were running out of time. Cronis was not a patient man and many members of Osiris followed him blindly. Events were drawing to a close, but even Schinzer could not predict an outcome as Osiris seemed to triumph over pilots and Preventers alike. The time to act was now.

Turning his back on the flurry of armed and captured soldiers, Lytol Schinzer reached for the long-range radio receiver in his pocket.

"Marie, it's time."

* * *

**Next Chapter: 23, Turn of the Tide**, Schinzer has a plan up his sleeve to turn the tide of the battle that is unexpected on both fronts.


	23. Turn of the Tide

_AN: Well, I'm not even going to get into it. But, here, have a chapter. I'm working on it... slowly. Almost done, actually. Only 6 more chapters and the Epilogue. Wow... Anyways, hope you enjoy._

_Disclaimer: See previous chapters. I still don't own GW._

* * *

Chapter 23

Like Heero, Zechs Merquise was frustrated by the compound in which he found himself. The corridors curved endlessly, leading neither to open doorways nor to soldiers. In fact, he had seen no one at all since he had first descended the stairwell, as though they had all joined in the battle that raged outside. However, he was not foolish enough to believe that to be the truth of the matter. Like the room in which Relena had first been discovered, he expected these to be soundproof, which meant that in order to get anywhere he would first have to find a way to enter the closed doors.

How irritating.

Somewhere in the underground complex, both his sister and Yuy were being held. Though he cared little for the latter beyond respect for his skill as a pilot, Relena's face burned like a beacon in his mind. She was with Cronis; she was trapped with her rapist, and Zechs would be damned if he allowed her to suffer through that experience ever again.

As he rounded yet another corner, Zechs was forced to come to an abrupt stop, eyes narrowing dangerously at the sight before him.

"Zechs Merquise… Not the man I was expecting, but you will do just as well."

"Linnux."

The small man was waiting in the middle of the hall, crystalline-blue eyes surprised but unimpressed. A rapier rested comfortably in one hand, tapping rhythmically against his thigh. When Zechs took a cautious step forward, that hand tightened, the sword suddenly brandished before him in confident mastery. "I would suggest turning around and leaving this place. Though we have not met formally behind our weapons, I am sure you've seen my ability reflected on Yuy and Maxwell. You have no business here."

Zechs laughed: a short, low, dangerous sound that Noin had once pointed out to him. "I don't think so."

It was only his instincts as a pilot that allowed him to parry the sword as it was thrust towards his chest, catching the blade on the butt of his gun and throwing it away. Then he was moving swiftly backwards, dodging the blade as Linnux drove forward.

* * *

The sound of the car was loud as it rolled rapidly over the mud-slick roads, rattling its contents like so many empty barrels. The muffler had a hole in it.

Sitting quietly in the passenger seat, Marie Schinzer looked out at the dismal scenery before her; the ruined colony summoning memories of the war her husband had fought not so long ago. Lytol had once said to her that it was the single most horrendous and most just battle he had ever fought: horrendous because it had taken so many lives away, honorable because Treize Khushrenada had brought about peace through that war. Despite the horrors of the war, for once her husband had found pride in his life away from the battlefield.

And then Cronis had appeared.

The man made her skin crawl. His eyes were cold, dead. Lytol had told her he was an ex-soldier who had served under Treize, discarded after the end of the war like so many others, but the person she saw was not a war-torn veteran. He did not suffer scars from the war, he did not mourn the comrades he had lost in the depth of space; Zephyr Cronis lamented the loss of the battlefield.

"We're almost there, Ma'am. ETA five minutes." Marie looked up to the driver as he spoke to her, offering a gentle smile.

"Thank you, Christopher." He was just another soldier without a war, but she could see the difference between those schooled, haunted eyes and the calculating gaze of the head of Osiris. She knew her husband had seen the distinction as well.

She had thought that the Eve Wars would be the end of it all, but with Cronis' appearance in their lives, she knew Lytol would not set aside his gun just yet. As he had been as a young man, Lytol was caught up in Cronis' abrupt call to arms for the former members of Osiris. It was impossible for her husband to brush such a call aside, no matter the intention behind it. If he was not alarmed by it, he had certainly been intrigued. He had never denied his own curiosity, not his suspicions; her husband was a soldier to his very core, and she would never deny him that.

"With all due respect, Ma'am, I still don't think you should be here. Commander Schinzer said—"

"Christopher," she cut in lightly, watching the road rather than the young man she addressed. Her voice easily took on an authoritative, if still motherly, air, "you take orders from my husband as a lieutenant under his supervision, correct?"

"Yes Ma'am, but—"

"Who, my dear, do you think gives his orders?" The expression she sent him left no room for debate, fleeting and passive as it was, and the young lieutenant quickly held his tongue. Lytol had been intent on leaving her behind on L2, but she had always been the kind of woman to stand beside her husband no matter the danger. After all, she felt he sometimes forgot that he was not the only person who had fought a war, no matter how many years ago it had been. She had taught him some of his best maneuvers, and was not about to be outdone by a subordinate.

She would _not_ be left on the sidelines like so many army wives.

* * *

His wrists were raw and bleeding by the time he had managed to work his hands free, but Duo forgot the pain in lieu of subtly plucking at the bonds around his ankles. As Schinzer had promised, he had been trussed like a pig and thrown to the wayside with the other pilots, but while the general was busy it had been a simple matter to free himself. Fortunately, the other members of Osiris were more concerned with the battle that still rages in front of the complex, only a few soldiers lingering behind with the general to relay messages and devise strategy. The pilots were all but forgotten, even by those men meant to guard them.

Behind him, Trowa seemed to be following the same line of thought, for he had already freed himself and was working at Quatre's restraints, the blond man still seemingly stunned by the explosion he had been caught in. Wufei, unfortunately, was another matter completely. If Duo had been trussed like a pig, Wufei was chained like a lion, ropes crisscrossing every-which-way and around every limb until it was near impossible to move. Of course, that did not stop him from struggling – a fact that amused Duo to a whole new level. When they had been captured together before during the war, the dark-haired man had always been calm and quiet, but this current state seemed to obliterate the control he had shown in their younger years.

Seriously, it was funny!

On that thought, the last of the rope around his feet fell away and Duo was able to subtly shift towards the man in question to work on his bonds. Though, he admitted to himself, he would not mind letting him stew like that a little while longer during which Duo would have gladly taken a picture, now was not the time or the place…

He would simply have to recreate the scene later.

As he worked, Trowa and a dazed Quatre joined in the effort to free Wufei until all four plots were crouched together and surveying the camp. The few soldiers that remained were looking anywhere but at them, most likely believing that they were still securely bound. Despite their injuries, the four quietly agreed to dispose of these soldiers and find Schinzer. Obviously, the Osiris general was the one leading the attack against the Preventers. Cut off the head…

Disabling the guards was a simple matter – a pressure point here, the butt of a gun there – until there were the bodies of passed out soldiers behind a handful of trees, out of sight and out of mind.

Finding Schinzer, however, was a different matter. He was no longer lingering in that part of the camp, but had instead moved off deeper into the woods according to the few startled men they were able to interrogate before incapacitating. To this end, the pilots were forced to move in deeper as well, taking themselves farther from the place where their comrades fought.

In this part of the colony the trees had been allowed to grow thick and abundant, and while this leant a higher measure of stealth, it also made it difficult to see what was ahead. Only through his training as a pilot did Duo stop himself from running nose-first into the shoulder of the very man they were seeking. Dodging through the trees, he was suddenly confronted by a massive clearing and the back of Lytol Schinzer.

Now, if he could just— "'Bout time, Maxwell. I expected more out of your boys. Come out here, all of you, we need your help if this is going to work."

Duo stood dumfounded, the general fixed on the papers he held in his hands. When the braided pilot did not reply immediately, he frowned and turned to regard Duo over one shoulder.

"I said, come on, boy. This won't win itself."

Cautiously, Duo stepped forward to stand beside the peculiar general; only to be stunned as more of the clearing crept into view.

He was certain somewhere some deity was laughing at him… most likely a Shinigami.

* * *

Despite the obvious advantage Osiris had over their opponents, the Preventers were holding what little ground they had left with all their might. The injured had been loaded into the trucks for dressing, and the few casualties had been pulled far from the gray where their bodies would not be desecrated. Surprisingly, there were a lot fewer of those than they had expected. Most men that had been incapacitated were suffering more from superficial wounds or the effects of bomb blasts.

Nevertheless, they _were_ losing.

"Sir, there is still no sign of Duo Maxwell, or any of the other Special Ops." Preventer Captain Luca Kim grit his teeth at the report, peeking out from behind one of the trucks to return enemy fire. Yes, they had worn away at the edges of Osiris, but the reinforcements had forced the remaining Preventers into an uphill battle in which they were surrounded on all sides. Inside, he knew they would not win without a miracle, but they were Preventers; it was their duty to hold out until the last in the name of peace. Of course, the help of the Gundam Pilots would have been useful, as it had once been in the war.

Very few people knew the secret behind the 'Special Ops' division within the Prevents – a team that existed outside the boundaries of normal Preventer protocol, followed their own agendas, and had skills that far surpassed even the most weathered of soldiers remaining from the Eve Wars – but Luca had stumbled upon it all accidentally some months before, having heard the tail-end of a conversation between Maxwell and Yuy… Well, mostly Maxwell. It was not so much that the one-sided conversation had called them pilots outright, but Luca had fought in the Eve Wars himself and was able to put two-and-two together. Of course, they very next moment both men had walked around the corner and discovered his eavesdropping, ending in a stern conversation with Commander Une that he never wanted to repeat again (that woman was terrifying when she wanted to be). In a way, though, it made perfect sense to him that such men be a part of the Preventers. People like the Gundam Pilots never truly disappeared into the backdrop of history.

Unfortunately, Gundam Pilots or otherwise, their presence was sorely lacking in the eleventh hour of this little war.

"Sir!" Drifting foolishly in his own thoughts, Luca almost did not realize the flash bomb that had fallen nearby until he was tackled and rolled beneath the truck that had previously protected him. Dazed but unharmed, he looked up at the worried face of one of his officers and remembered exactly where he was. "Sir!"

Shaking himself back to reality and pushing aside the matter of Duo Maxwell and the other Gundam pilots, he twisted his body towards the enemy lines while still tucked beneath the truck and fired off the last five rounds in his semi-automatic rifle, feeling satisfaction flood his chest as three bullets hit their marks in the legs and shoulders of Osiris soldiers.

It was a losing battle, but he had learned long ago that he would not just lie down and die; his body and mind demanded more. The Gundam Pilots had taught many a soldier that lesson.

Out of bullets, Luca rolled himself back towards the shielded side of the truck where the bomb had gone off, scrabbling for one of the discarded guns left behind by the injured. Hand almost at its goal, he was forced to come to an abrupt half at the click of a hammer and the press of heated metal to his forehead. "Looking for something?" The gun was dangled mockingly in front of his eyes before the butt of it was brought down harshly on his temple, the impact throwing his to the ground. All around, he could see Osiris finally reining in the last of the Preventer forces.

…So this was it, huh? To live through the Eve Wars, and then have it all come to a halt because of one meager faction of rebels… Looking upwards, Luca stubbornly stared down his captor, knowing it was the end. They had gone as far as they could go. Above him, the man smiled. "That's right, you can't win this. Just let it go. General Cronis will take care of the rest, give the colonists the victory they _really_ want."

The _HELL_ he would—

Reverb was all he heard – an echoing, hollow sound that should not have been audible above the raucous of the battle – before the man crumpled uselessly to the ground, a hole through his thigh and a bump forming at the back of his head where a rubber bullet rebounded.

"What the—"

And then there was only chaos as soldiers, neither Preventer nor Osiris, flooded the field and took the battle for themselves.

* * *

It was like watching dominoes fall, the way Osiris soldiers all but collapsed under this new weight of attack. Head still swimming, Duo watched from the edges of the battlefield with his mouth hanging open. After meeting with Schinzer again, Duo had found himself, Trowa, and Wufei, slinking around the outer perimeter, taking out sentries in order to make way for the surprise attack that came under the command of Lytol Schinzer. Now, they could only stand back and watch the results.

They swarmed the battlefield like locust, outclassing the remaining Osiris members through skill and mere numbers. Ragtag, wearing colors and suits from former Earth militaries, armies, colonial factions, Treize's faction, former Osiris uniforms, even White Fang fatigues… The men that swarmed the outside of the compound held no existing allegiance but to themselves and the general that overlooked it all.

"Who are they all?" The question was asked softly, Quatre's bloodied face betraying awe similar to Duo's. Beside the blond, Trowa stood stoically, supporting the smaller boy around his waste and apparently acting as the only support keeping his upright for the time being. Further away, Wufei scowled distastefully, though at what Duo could not tell.

"They're the other half," Schinzer offered in a voice Duo could not place – somewhere between pride and sorrow, maybe. "Soldiers, some former Osiris, most from the Eve wars. They're the ones who want to continue to live peacefully beneath the ideal of Relena Peacecraft's pacifism. When they heard what was happening, word spread like wildfire among those of us too immersed in the world of war to cut underground ties. All this you see here, this has all been in planning for nearly five years now."

"Five years!?" The outburst tore from Duo's throat before he could stop himself, if he had wanted to, but Schinzer's disregard told him the general had expected such a reaction.

"You Gundam Pilots were always working just beneath the surface, right beside men like Treize and foundations like Barton, but many of us had an entire underground that stretches even into the present. I'm pretty sure Yuy at least knows of it, but he always left us to our own devices as long as we played by the rules. After the Wars ended and that whole Mariemeia incident, most of us settled into civilian lives, but we kept the network going. That was how we first heard about Cronis and the revival of Osiris. There were rumors floating around that a man wanted to revive an old war faction in the name of the dead man, Treize Khushrenada. Of course, all of us know that when anyone sends out a call-to-arms, no matter how quiet or covert, the consequences can be dire. Soldiers don't forget their home on the battlefield. Thus, we thought it was important to keep an eye out. Then, three years ago when matters started to get serious, it was decided I would join the new faction and keep tabs on the organization Cronis was gathering in Treize's name. We did not want a repeat of the wars.

"Back then, no one connected the Princess's disappearance to the resurrection of Osiris, but the longer I remained the more I realized Cronis' obsession with her, Yuy, and Treize. It was only a matter of time before she showed up at one of our compounds. She was half-starved and beaten by that time, but otherwise she still had that spirit that draws everyone to her; pissed the hell out of Cronis that she could still be so strong despite it all, so he devised a way to steal it from her for good. I never expected Cronis to go so far as he did, maybe I was naïve then, seeing all that he's done, but by the time I realized it, it was too late to help the girl anyways. She's a strong one, that little miss, looked at me with eyes that could cut glass even after that bastard violated her, but you could tell it tore her up, and then afterwards… He wanted her in pieces, the poor lass." He paused, eyes dropping to the ground and jaw clenching subtly. Beyond, the motley surge of reinforcements were subduing that last of the Osiris soldiers, freeing Preventers, and tending to the injured.

"I was relieved when Yuy found her in that raid, but it made Cronis see red and move up all his plans, claiming that she belonged to him and he wanted her back. I can't explain to you kids how insane that man is. There's no point in trying to reason with him, he's living in a world of his own delusions. All he sees is Yuy, the little miss, and revenge for what he claims was taken from him. He'll go as far as he needs to kill Yuy. I can't say exactly why, but I know it has something to do with the death of Treize Khushrenada and Yuy's part in the end of the war. Cronis is determined to 'finish Treize's work'."

"Treize finished his own work." Wufei's voice was a surprise as it broke the air, calm and knowing in its flat tone. Four pairs of eyes turned to regard him. "When he died," _when I killed him_, "he knew exactly the outcome he wanted. Heero and Zechs fulfilled the rest."

"Not in Cronis' mind," Schinzer said darkly.

"But, I don't understand," Quatre frowned in thought, "why just go after Heero? Why not Zechs too?"

"Zechs Merquise died that day," Trowa said quietly.

"Exactly. So all that was left was the Gundam Pilot who saved Earth, and the pacifist queen Treize had used for his own purposes." The smile that spread across Lytol Schinzer's face was anything but pleased. "That is all he see right now, and if reaching this goal means throwing the colonies back into war, he'll do so without hesitation. Hell, he probably looks forward to it, the way that man thrives on war."

"But… Heero…" Duo's eyes widened in realization, his body rushing forward without regard, only to feel a heavy hand on his arm. Looking back, he found himself staring into calm, wise eyes.

"Careful, boy. The other generals have no intention of changing sides."

Letting the words sink in, Duo glanced between the older man and the complex in the distance, only to feel a mischievous grin suddenly light his face. "I'm counting on it." He started off again, only to stop a few feet further. "Hey, old man."

"What is it, kid?"

"Why now?"

It was Schinzer's turn to grin, giving Duo the distinct feeling that he was seeing himself in forty years. "It's all about timing. What good is stealth if you've got nothing to back it up?"

A man after his own heart.

Catching up a discarded rifle as he ran, Duo Maxwell did not look back. His buddy was waiting.

* * *

Watching the young pilot charge out after his friends, Lytol Schinzer could not help but continue to grin, putting an arm out to stop the other pilots from joining him. "You three stay here. You're a bit worse off than that fool out there. Now, then how about—"

"Lytol!" The grin quickly vanished at the sound of a feminine voice, only to be replaced by horror as he spun about to face its source.

"Marie?'

Sure enough, his wife was running across the bloody battlefield in a housedress and flats, hair streaming out behind her like a sheet of silk blown in the wind. Trailing at her side, Lytol recognized the lieutenant he had left behind on L2 to rally the veterans and contain said wife, the boy looking as though he would collapse any moment from trying to keep up.

"What the hell are you doing here, woman? I told you to stay at home!" The words were out without warning, leaving him pale and crazy-eyed as he suddenly realized his mistake. His sweet, beautiful wife, his rose, the love of his life, the kind, motherly that knew only warmth and good-natured thoughts, abruptly slowed with an expression that promised black, black death.

"_**Pardon**_?"

"I—uh—well—You heard what I said!" There was nothing to do but charge head-in. Oh, he was going to be hurting come night.

"I most certainly did, and if you think, Lytol Schinzer, that for one moment some flimsy, half-assed order you gave to a little boy no older than a son would actually cause me to remain behind and leave my foolish husband to fight along in yet another ridiculous war, after having outranked him for the entirety of our military careers and winning far more metals for acts of valor, prestige, and training, not to mention spending almost forty years cooking, cleaning, and picking up after him, you are _sadly_ mistaken. I will go where I want, when I want, and to this day I still outrank you, and thus have every right to feel insulted by the idea that you believe _you_ can give _me_ orders to stay home when this involves me in as many ways as it does you. _AM I CLEAR, GENERAL_?" The scariest part was that she said it all without ever raising her voice.

"Yes Ma'am." Feeling like a scolded child, Lytol averted his eyes as she scrutinized him for several more moments, before abruptly turning towards the three remaining, understandably stunned Gundam pilots.

"Oh, you poor children! Come now, let's get you cleaned up, you look a mess. Our boys will attend to the rest."

He could only look on dejectedly as his wife walked off with the boys, fussing in particular over Quatre's face, until his eyes settled on the young lieutenant attempting to slip off with them. Reaching out, he laid a heavy hand upon the soldier's shoulder and felt satisfaction in the way he stiffened.

"Christopher, what exactly did I tell you about letting my wife come?"

There was no describing the strangled, guttural sound that was the boy's response. Schinzer smiled darkly to himself.

Retribution would be sweet.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 24, Loose Ends**, Osiris is slowly coming to an end, but now what remains is the final confrontation. Relena struggles to escape Cronis, Heero scrambles to get to her in time, and Duo and Zechs find themselves face to face with the two remaining Osiris Generals.


	24. Loose Ends

_AN: Do I really need to say anything? Life happens. Have a chapter!_

_Disclaimer: GW and all affiliated characters are not mine. Dammit._

* * *

Chapter 24

The blood loss was getting to him. At this rate, when he found Cronis he would be unable to face him with anything other than a gun. Despite his makeshift bandage, red was still seeping through and running down the useless appendage that was Heero's right arm, causing his head to swim and his vision to blur. Whether the limb would ever fully recover was to be seen at all, especially with the amount of time that had passed since it had first been torn up by the car explosion. For now it was dead weight to his body, oozing precious blood and causing only agony. The adrenaline had long ago worn off.

Empty room after empty room: that was all he had found so far; however, the further he went the more soldiers he found, and they were no longer calm and collected. Something had most definitely happened above.

"—no response on the radio. The last I heard, there was a surprise attack."

"Should we tell _him_?"

"…No. He said he didn't want to be disturbed, no matter what. He has that woman in his office again."

"So what do we do?"

"The other generals are already engaging their targets. All that we can do is protect our posts down here. If there's no response from above, we're already too late to help. We have to protect Cronis."

"But—"

Two quick blows with the butt of his gun and both men were down. If they were supposed to guard Cronis, it meant the Osiris general was in a nearby hallway. That was all he needed to know.

Winding through the underground, Heero had come to realize that there was little to no organization among the lower ranks of Osiris. Though the generals were brilliant tacticians in their own rights and all of the members were soldiers, without the leadership of the generals the lower ranks were falling into confused chaos. All they had remaining were their standing orders—a fault of Cronis for banking everything on the success of his plans, or perhaps simply his own madness. There was no question the man was insane—Heero had met his share o f psychotics in his life, after all—but Cronis' madness was that of a megalomaniac: convinced his plan was infallible, but so obsessed with one idea to ever cover the full range of possibilities, including failure. Cronis was ingenious and underhanded, but he was also incapable of acknowledging his own mortality.

It was the thin straw that Heero grasped after.

Rounding another corner, the world tilted dangerously, causing the former Gundam pilot to careen harshly against the wall. The force of the hit caused the breath to rush out of his chest, his legs collapsing in response to the sudden lack of oxygen. His shoulder throbbed like a heartbeat; the world threatened to go black.

And then he heard her scream.

* * *

More than ever, Zechs Merquise wished fervently that he still carried the rapier that had once come standard with his Oz uniform.

He dodged yet another skillful lunge by Oren Linnux, redirecting the sword into the wall and sliding away before the return swing caught him in the arm. To Zechs' chagrin, he had found the small general to be light on his feet and almost precognitive in his ability to read an opponent. He moved fluidly and seemed to absorb the more powerful blows of his adversary and return them with force that more than once had threatened to end Zechs' retaliation. Despite his failing vision, Linnux was a superb swordsman and soldier: precise, focused, and cold. The Lightning Count did not doubt that he relied very little on sight at all, and for some reason he found himself irritated by it all.

It reminded him far too much of another perfect soldier.

Winded and refusing to admit to it, Zechs scrutinized the small man with disgust. Linnux stared back, impassive and calculating; knowledgeable in all the wrong ways.

"You are wasting your time, Zechs Merquise," Linnux stated monotonously, standing as tall as his height allowed him: like he had a stick up his ass. "You cannot win this battle, or this war. I'm sure you understand that Cronis has already procured what he needs from both Yuy and the former Queen. Whether or not our men above are compromised, Osiris has achieved its goal here today. I would suggest you dawdle no further where you can do no good."

He had to laugh, if only for the irony of the words, "I've always liked the impossible fights. Someone once told me it was an illness I had." Noin's face flashed through his mind as the sword filled his vision and forced him backwards. How was it that no matter how many times he died and was reborn, he always found himself in the same place? Treize would surely have a tried and true philosophy concerning the circular path that all men followed; perhaps something about the fatal flaw of humanity, that 'endless waltz' he always spoke of. Osiris, after all, had once been a faction born of Treize's ideals.

Zechs felt his eyes narrow.

Treize. It always came back to Treize.

"The Queen?"

Oren Linnux smiled—a small quirk of the mouth—and Zechs swore the temperature in the air dropped. "I see you finally understand."

Zechs' jaw tightened painfully and cold anger flared in his chest. The fools… "All too well, it seems."

"Treize Kushrenada was a brilliant strategist and politician. He was an even greater manipulator of the war. If people such as Relena Peacecraft and Heero Yuy had never entered onto the stage, there would be a great empire across both colonies and Earth today. But the colonies launched the Gundams and Treize lost sight of his initial plans, falling into the web of the battle they fought with each other. You, too, Zechs Merquise, were swallowed by these new goals. The war was lost the moment Treize Khushrenada forgot his true ideals, and it is the Gundams' fault," Linnux explained casually, as though describing the weather. His crystalline eyes did not change as they looked at him from across the space, his sword held at the ready with all the grace of a cat that knows it has trapped its prey. Zechs did not bother to mount a guard, his brain processing the new information he had been so freely offered by the quietly gloating general. Relena was trapped, the Gundam Pilots were fighting a losing war on the surface, and Heero Yuy was either captured or dead.

To Oren Linnux, the war was already won. And like many powerful men before him, he failed to understand the resilience of Gundam.

Somehow, it was humorous. Zechs felt the laughter—malicious if it was anything—bubble up in his chest and rise to the surface, bleeding outward in a low, cruel sound that he had never heard himself utter before. Linnux remained stoic, but the Lightning Count could see the subtle nuances that indicated his irritation: the tightening of muscles and the shift forward of one foot. Whether Linnux knew he was an open book to Zechs, the tall man was not sure, but suddenly the ball was in his court. Zechs Merquise had dealt with men like these his whole life, and Milliardo Peacecraft had led them in the White Fang.

Suddenly, Oren Linnux was no longer so threatening.

"Idiots."

He felt himself move before his mind ever thought it, and the feeling of his fist connecting with Linnux's jaw was beyond satisfying. As the small man staggered beneath the force and angle of the onslaught, Zechs took the moment shoulder him backwards and knock the rapier from lax fingers, grabbing it up in his own hand and slashing out and downwards before Linnux could regain himself and retaliate. Linnux, for all his strength and cunning, crumpled like a ragdoll.

He looked coldly down at the man before him. "You could never have understood him."

The butt of the rapier fell with harsh judgment.

* * *

Once below the compound, Duo Maxwell was in his element, skimming the halls on Death's light feet and surveying what remained of Osiris' underground from the shadows. To be honest, there were very few men remaining either conscious or intact enough to put up a resistance, and it was not hard to silence those that did. Obviously, Zechs—and he hoped Heero as well, if he knew anything about the Gundam Pilot's flare for escaping sticky situations—had fulfilled his share of leveling the battlefield in his search for the princess. However, unlike the two men that had come before him, Duo was a master of stealth and espionage, making navigation of the compound far less complicated… It may have also helped that he had swindled the compound schematics out of one of the Osiris captains on his way into the compound, but who was keeping track?

There was one likely place that Relena Peacecraft would be kept, and Duo was counting on her being locked away in Cronis' quarters because Zechs had a headstart and he did not intend to go there first. In fact, Duo half-expected that part of the battle to already be over. No, his first priority was something that sat much, much higher on his own agenda, and he put the faith in his comrades that they would take care of the rest.

The door was a bitch to open, forcing Duo to resort to a level of lock-picking and wire-tapping he had only employed a handful of times in his life, taught to him by Solo and kept close to his chest as he grew. When it finally swung inwards, he mentally patted himself on the back and smiled grimly as he entered.

Merrick Daye's personal quarters were clean and unadorned, as one often saw with spies and stealth strategists. They had had no warning about Daye's background in espionage, but Lytol had freely confessed the skills of the younger man.

"_There's something I need to talk to you about, kid_," the old man had said, pulling Duo aside once the reinforcements had retained a firm control over the battle. Duo had been all cheeky grins at the time, caught up in the fire of the war they were fighting. Schinzer, however, looked as grave as Duo had yet to see him. "_The men left down there—Daye and Linnux—they're more of a handful than anyone can chew except maybe you boys. I'm old enough now to know that men like that can best me in a fight, no matter what kind of tricks I have up my sleeve. Oren is straight-forward: play to his ego, and all his preparation and focus will be for nothing—granted you have the strength and skill to overpower him. Merrick, however… Merrick is a boy like you in many ways, kid. He's sharp as a knife and keen to use himself as one. He's good at staying in the background and out of the fray; strikes when it's convenient and disappears again before you can catch him._"

Duo had frowned, something in his chest tightening as gruesome memories rose to mind. Schinzer spoke with a scowl and tainted pride, seeming to struggle between disgust and admiration as he lighted on the younger general.

"_During the wars, he was a soldier for Oz, trained on the surface as a tactician and mechanic, but he was molded as a spy. Some of the things he did back then… Some of the things he's done _**recently**_—_"the pause had been painfully pregnant _"—He's not the boy he was when the wars began, but he's good at what he does. Don't take him lightly; it was never Linnux who was meant to act as Cronis' final line of defense._" When he finished, Lytol Schinzer looked drawn and ancient, his eyes tired and face gaunt. He looked aged, sending a shiver through Duo for the weight that rolled off the shoulders of the veteran. The connection had been made, and Duo did not know whether to hate Merrick Daye or pity him for the pawn he had become.

He had turned away from Schinzer with the intent to mull over this new knowledge, but had stopped before fully retreating, glancing back at the old general speculatively. "_Why shouldn't I kill him for what he did to Hilde?_" The question had come out colder that he had expected, but the sentiment had been sincere.

The reply was simple: "_He's family_."

Standing in the quarters of the man who had tried to murder his girlfriend, Duo silently debated whether such a plea actually meant anything.

Looking around, the main room he had stepped into was a living room, complete with generic couch, end table, and a com screen that was more likely for work than for play. Branching off on all three walls were doorways, one visibly to a kitchen and three more that revealed only darkness despite their open passages. It would be suicide to walk blindly into any of them, and dangerous to even cross the threshold of the foyer. Instead, Duo opted for the easy option.

"Come out or I'll blow us both up," he called cheerfully, aiming his borrowed rifle at the kitchen and the gas stove that sat so obviously in plain sight. Whomever had built the private quarters of the complex was clearly an idiot.

It was a moment before anything happened, then the shadows were materializing from the farthest doorway to the right. The man who appeared was perhaps ten years Duo's senior, long brown hair pulled back into a low ponytail that looked meticulous even as it swung at his shoulder. Merrick Daye was much different than his uncle, short and thin with hazel eyes that were hooded with distaste. He was all lank, but the Shinigami's history with one Heero Yuy had taught him never to underestimate the strength and speed of those that appeared weaker. Especially if that person were groomed as a spy.

"It doesn't matter whether you kill me or not. Cronis has already won. It's been hours since we first brought them in," Daye stated with a hard edge to his jaw. He did not doubt that Daye had been expecting him from the start, but Duo had always been (if not voluntarily) the decoy if it meant giving more time to the people who made every second count. It really wasn't a bad role to play.

"I didn't come here to kill you," he started, then swung the rifle when Daye took a step forward, "but it doesn't mean I don't want to."

Daye smirked sardonically, "I see my uncle told you about me. What, no revenge?"

The rifle went off without warning, and Daye was on the floor, his kneecap blown away.

"Oops. Finger slipped."

He may not kill the bastard, but he sure as hell wouldn't play nice.

* * *

Three years ago, Relena had never imagined she would endure hell and live to tell about it. She had been beaten, starved, raped, and humiliated by men that she would never see again and those that haunted both her dreams and her reality. Then, Heero had come and saved her like he always did, and the nightmare had been washed away. But she was no longer the girl she had been three years ago. She had always been resilient, but now…

Pinned against the desk, Relena waited, forcing herself to relax and feign defeat. Inevitably, he released one arm to reach for his pants, and her hand shot out to grab the lamp beside her, swinging blindly before hearing it shatter against something solid. All at once, his hold went slack and Zephyr Cronis crumpled to the floor at the same moment the room was plunged into darkness.

For one terrifying moment, she waited for the consequences of her actions.

When nothing happened she dropped to the floor, groping in the dark for the man she could hear breathing. "Keys… keys…" Her panic was palpable.

She found the set in his back pocket, next to the loaded gun holster that rested on his hip. Her hand lingered over the metal, trembling, before she unhooked it and threw the weapon away across the room where it clanked to a stop somewhere in the black. Then, trying to control the shaking in her body, Relena stumbled to the nearest wall and groped for the doorway.

There were five keys on the ring, forcing her to fumble with the small instruments to be able to fit them properly in the lock. She must have kept grabbing the same key because it took seven tries before she slipped one into the lock and heard the click of acceptance when she turned the mechanism. The light was blinding as she pulled back the door, forgetting everything else as freedom crept into reach.

She was two steps into the hall when he slammed into her, both princess and general tumbling to the ground in a mess of arms and legs. The panic resurfaced and Relena scrambled to escape, only to be pulled back by her leg and trapped under that terrifyingly familiar weight.

"NO!" The cry broke from her throat with all the fear and frustration she felt, echoing through the open, empty halls to be heard by no one. Tears ran down her cheeks as her nails dug into the cold cement floor, fighting for any hold she could find and succeeding only in peeling skin as Cronis won the battle of strength.

"Little bitch. I'll make sure you feel every second of this, then I'll kill you in front of him." Grabbing her by the hair and forcing her to turn to face him, Cronis sat on her legs and held her down by the neck with one hand, forcing off her airway as his other hand unlatched his belt buckle. Blood streamed down the side of his face where the lamp had shattered, shards still stuck into the skin of his cheek and forehead. He would be scarred permanently, and in the haze beginning to overtake her Relena felt a satisfaction at the knowledge that something she had done would be with _him_ for the rest of his life. Long after she was gone, Zephyr Cronis would remember the scars she had given him.

Three years had changed a lifetime.

His grip loosened enough to give her air and regain her vision, her head swimming dizzily, but then he was choking her again and she felt her consciousness slipping. She clawed futilely at his arm, but she knew that she was reaching the end of her ability to fight back, the lack of oxygen drawing the strength from her hands and body. Already half undressed, it would be far too easy for Cronis to achieve his goal and use her once again.

She could only feel the wet tears streaming down her cheeks, ripe with bitter defeat. _Heero_… She wanted so badly to see him again.

A shot filled the air and Cronis cried out suddenly, releasing her neck to grip his now-bleeding ear. Still pinned beneath his body, Relena twisted to look at the source of the shot and tears once again rushed to her eyes.

"Heero!"

Bleeding, arm shaking even as it held the smoking gun, and leaning heavily against the metal walls, Heero Yuy glared at them from down the hallway. He was a mess, but he was there. He was there.

"I'll kill you both," Cronis growled, and it was only then that Relena realized he had somehow retrieved his discarded gun before he had attacked her. Face twisted in rage and madness, the leader of Osiris raised the gun muzzle and aimed it at the resilient Gundam pilot.

"NO!"

The gunshot rang in all three pair of ears.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 25, Caught in the Crossfire**, The final confrontation has come down to Heero and Cronis, with Relena caught in the middle. Cronis shows the full range of his insanity and finally reveals the circumstances that brought about the last three years, and Heero fights both Cronis and his own body to save Relena.


	25. Caught in the Crossfire

_Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Oh, GW, how I burn for you._

* * *

Chapter 25

It was Relena's turn to protect Heero as the heel of her hand came up and cracked Zephyr Cronis in the jaw just as the gun went off, the shot ringing through the empty halls like the toll of a bell. At the same moment, the injured pilot staggered away from the wall and let off two more shots, forcing the Osiris leader to roll off and away from her body. The moment she was free, Relena scrabbled to her feet and hurtled towards Heero, careful to keep low in case it was necessary for him to take another shot. Her heart pounding in her throat, Relena met the hard-eyed soldier with a fierce hug, feeling safe as his useless right arm came up to encircle her shoulders and draw her close, his left arm aimed over her shoulder in the same movement so that Cronis remained in his sights. The moment was a tense one.

The first sign of movement in Cronis and Relena watched as Heero's finger tightened against the trigger before the red-faced general could even raise his gun. Cronis snarled, his eyes wild with rage and what Relena had come to associate as insanity. Silence reigned and the stalemate remained between the two men, but she could feel the energy slowly draining from Heero's body as he leaned more and more heavily upon her by the moment.

He was hitting his limits of exhaustion, even as the Perfect Soldier.

Cronis must have realized this as well, for the next moment all trace of anger and madness had disappeared from his face, replaced by that calm and cruel mask. "Do you really think you can win this, Heero Yuy? You're fighting gravity as we stand here. How many bullets are left in that gun? Three? Six? I've only set off one round, and I'm not the one on the defensive. How long do you think you can last before your strength fails and you are just a burden to the woman you want so desperately to protect?" They could both hear the laughter resounding in the general's words, the growing sneer on his lips evidence of his assumed triumph.

Peering down the length of Heero's outstretched arm, Relena could see the subtle tremble in his hand as he struggled to keep the gun upright. Cronis was right; he would not last long in any sense of a struggle.

"You're a foolish boy. You always have been: fighting in a war you have no stakes in, for a purpose you never fully understood. What you never realized was how you pilots corrupted the pure intentions that started the wars to begin with," Cronis spat coldly, voice losing its humor as he stared at the object of his hatred. "Humans are warring creatures. We live for conflict, encourage and nurture it. It is only through war that we evolve and maintain ourselves on both harsh Earth and endless Space, both of which wish to snuff us out of existence for our brilliance. We have the ability to surpass gods, but nature would have us as nothing more than apes. It is at the base of our existence that we must war against Nature itself, and thus against those that would keep us from our true potential."

"And that would be?" Heero asked, clearly unaffected by Cronis's words.

"To be as God." He said it so simply it was as though he were discussing tea. Cronis' eyes were once again wild. "Treize understood this potential. Humans are the only creature capable of overcoming even the environments that spawn them. Already we have achieved the ability to create life outside of the womb, as with the entire Winner family, and to erase an entire civilization from existence, as with the original plans of Operation Meteor. But not all men realize this. Some wish to erase war, and thus erase all that humanity could become; Men like you, Yuy, and pacifists like you, Miss Dorlian. It is people like you that corrupted the vision of His Excellency, Treize."

Looking up, Relena could see Heero's eyes narrow in disgust and understanding.

"Treize meant to end war, not cultivate it. From the beginning he entered into the war to the moment Tallgeese was destroyed, he worked to stop all conflict," Heero explained without question, his hand suddenly steady before Relena's eyes. She had often wondered how much of an understanding had passed between he and Treize Khushrenada when the Oz leader had released her as Queen of the World, and she was only now beginning to realize the true depth of connection the soldiers of the war had shared with one another.

"Wrong!" Cronis shouted, obviously irate by the assumption that Heero knew anything about the fallen Khushrenada. "Treize did all in his power to continue the war between the Earth and Colonies until the Earth forces were triumphant, so that we might evolve once again. His vision was to have Earth rule over Space as it was meant to do from the beginning when humans first created the colonies." But even she knew that was not true.

"It is you who is wrong, Cronis," Relena felt herself say, forcing herself not to look away when the Osiris general shifted his crushing gaze onto her face, seeming to have almost forgotten she was there in his rant. He was still holding his gun, but that, too, must have fallen to the back of his mind, for it was no longer so firmly pointed at them as Heero's was at Cronis. She felt hope and boldness swell in her chest and pressed onward. "My brother, Milliardo, thought much like you, but he also came to the wrong conclusions. He and Treize fought together in Oz, but when Treize created his own faction and attempted to unite Romefeller and the colonies in a different way, Milliardo united with the White Fang that almost succeeded in destroying all that they had fought for to begin with. In his quest for peace, he only propagated more war and fought against Treize, who held the same ideals of peace through conflict. It was never about domination!"

Her words angered Cronis, for the next moment Relena was concealed almost completely behind Heero's bare back, the gun brandished valiantly in her direction.

"What would you know about a man as great as Treize Khushrenada? Milliardo Peacecraft was a traitor to Treize's cause, just like you corrupted him with your false sense of peace. Do you know he spoke so highly of you and your misguided pacifism? He thought you were adorable: a stubborn little girl who didn't know when to quit. Even when you became his tool, you never realized your own role in the great play of life. He admired your conviction. That's why it was so fun to use you, because you kept pretending you were so strong even when I had you writhing underneath me like a little whor—" The shot came before either she or Cronis expected it, the general crying out as blood spurted from a wound in his shoulder, the gun dropping from his suddenly limp fingers.

"Treize would have been disgusted by you."

* * *

Cronis looked up from where he knelt, blood flowing freely down his arm from where Heero had successfully disarmed him with a bullet. Gritting his teeth and looking as though something had finally broken in his thin hold on sanity, the Osiris leader grabbed up the discarded gun and rushed forward in one fluid movement. Heero was too drained by his own blood loss to properly dodge the attack, managing only to throw Relena away from him as Cronis collided with his body and knocked them both to the floor. Using the momentum of the movement, Heero twisted and managed to hoist the heavier man across the floor, both guns falling away in the scuffle so that he was left with only his wits and rapidly fading agility.

They moved at the same moment, Cronis to rise and Heero to reach after his gun. Cronis won out, crawling in spider-like fashion across the floor so that he could sweep-kick the gun out of Heero's reach and grapple with the Gundam pilot in the midst of the hallway.

They fought for dominance on the cold concrete floor, every roll and twist causing agony to rush through Heero's body so that he was forced to keep a firm hold on consciousness while fighting spots in his vision and near-blackouts. Forgetting about using sight at all, he relied on the skill of his body and the sound and feel of Cronis' movement to guide him.

"Heero!"

Relena called out to him somewhere in the background, and then she was a blur of weight that slammed into both of them and carried Cronis off and away from him. The princess and general landed in a heap on the other side of the hall, with Cronis easily gaining the upper hand and knocking the small woman into the wall with enough force to cause her to crumple like a doll. Standing, the grey-eyed man looked cruelly down at her as he recomposed himself. "I'll get to you in due time. Wait your turn, Princess." Heero felt rage burn in his chest, forcing him to stand and meet the challenge before him.

"Treize attracted people like you all throughout the war: men who never had any purpose in their lives, so they resorted to war to achieve a sense of accomplishment and belonging. He was proud to give soldiers a home to go back to, a side to belong to, and he was good at what he strived to do. But what he failed at was providing a place for them after the wars, instead spawning a generation of lost souls who do not know how to live outside of the battlefield. The Eve Wars, Mariemeia, The Barton Foundation… all of them were remnants of a generation that had never experienced life outside of war. They were afraid of what peace would mean for them, and so they meant to continue war to give themselves a new purpose. Osiris is the same. _You_ are the same."

Silence reigned, deadly in its viscosity. Both men had gone still as stone.

"You… dare…" The words were ground out, grey eyes like granite and clashing with cool Prussian blue. Heero used that anger and pushed forward, purposefully centering on Treize's involvement in the war.

"Osiris was a faction that came about after Treize's death, during the Eve Wars and the surfacing of Mariemeia. Originally, it was filled with remnants of the Treize Faction who could not accept Treize's defeat and meant to 'continue Treize's ideals' in the era of Relena Peacecraft and the Preventers. Unfortunately, no one in Osiris actually understood Treize's true ideals and the original Osiris fell apart, eaten alive from the inside by its own ranks. Treize Khushrenada left behind a legacy of disaster for the soldiers who followed him blindly, but he achieved the goal he had strived for from the beginning of it all: the end of all wars. He understood that battles would still be fought over the question of war, but he left those battles to the people he trusted most: Relena, Une, Zechs, and all the people now and in generations to come that would continue to rally for peace.

"Treize hated war, and he was willing to die in order to let a new era live. That is what you and others like you don't and never will understand, Cronis," he finished quietly, confidently. It was not a righteous speech or a smug knowledge, simply fact, monotonous and clean as it rang true in the empty hallways.

"Blasphemous…" It was little more than a hiss, Zephyr Cronis red-faced and trembling where he stood across from Heero. Next to him, Relena began to stir without Cronis' notice, and Heero slowly began to back away, trusting in the general's instinct to follow his prey. Sure enough, Cronis began to step forward in time with Heero's retreat, forgetting the fallen woman and focusing solely on the man who dared to ruin the memory that he retained of Treize Khushrenada. "You… I should take you apart, piece by piece, and send you to every corner of Space and Earth to set an example. You…"

Heero did not know whether to be wary or amused by Cronis' sudden speechlessness, but he took the opportunity to lead him as far from Relena as he would go. She had yet to raise her head.

"I knew Treize much better than you think I do, Cronis. I fought beside him and against him. Treize Khushrenada was not the man you think he was."

That was the push.

"_I_ knew Treize! _I_ fought beside him through the war, up until the moment he died! _I _saw you Gundam brats and that worthless girl for what you really were! I warned him against you, but you filled his head with those ridiculous ideas of peace and resolution! You know nothing, Yuy! _You_ were the reason why Treize died, why Oz lost the war and the Colonies are still separated from the rest of humanity! _You_ are the reason that holds us back from our true potential and _you_ are the cause that must be snuffed out to ensure Treize's success!"

Zephyr Cronis was insane, of that Heero was sure.

The general dove for him, forcing Heero to throw himself back and away. Unfortunately, despite rolling safely out of reach, the pain that rebounded from the action caused him to all but pass out. The world went dangerously dark, his consciousness a hard fight to win. By the time he had grasped it and gained a firm hold, Cronis was practically on top of him, uninjured fist aimed at Heero's face. Using Relena's example, he jammed his own palm straight up into the jaw above him, stunning the older man and using the moment to free himself.

This time, however, Cronis had no incentive to stay back. As soon as he had recovered he rushed back at Heero, and this time the Gundam pilot found himself too weak to fend off the attack. Realizing his advantage, the leader of Osiris caught his prey up in a headlock and unceremoniously dragged him back towards the empty office and the unsuspecting body of Relena Peacecraft. Heero surveyed the area, playing the victim while his body used the borrowed time to recover what little strength it could manage, and it was then that he noticed one of the discarded guns tucked back in the shadows.

"I will enjoy killing you, Yuy, I hope you know that. Unlike you, I do not kill because I am ordered or it is my duty. I kill to better the world, knowing that when I take a life it is for the benefit of mankind. It will be a great pleasure to kill you, just as it was a great honor for you to experience the death of Treize. Never will there be a more spectacular death than yours will be, I will make sure of that. The agony you'll feel will be supreme. Of course, I'll kill you today if I have to, but I think you and I both realize that I have the upper hand here. No, no, you and I will have a grand ending. The whole of Earth and the Colonies will be watching, and I will finally fulfill the unity Treize dreamed of beneath a military regime. Miss Dorlian, of course, will remain in my custody, but you… You will become a brilliant martyr for our purpose." Heero could hear the malicious smile in the voice, distant with imagination of the terrible things he surely had in mind for the pilot. Heero, however, heard the rant with only one ear, concentrating on the gun as it crept closer. Just a little bit more and…

"Heero?"

Relena stirred, opening bleary, painful eyes to take in the pair of them. Heero forced himself to remain limp in Cronis' hold, playing the victim so that he might have a little more time. The general, for his part, was almost giddy with the sudden wakefulness of the princess.

"Ah! Miss Dorlian! We were just discussing your presence in my future plans. You see, Yuy will be a brilliant martyr, and you… you, my dear, have a much more important part to play…"

There!

Twisting with all the speed and strength of a man who had never suffered a bullet in his life, Heero Yuy gripped the arm of his captor, dug the heels of his boots into the floor, and bodily threw the man over his shoulder and into an adjacent wall. Cronis hit with a thud and a crunch, falling like a bag of bricks to the floor as Heero dove for the gun, feeling it slide with an almost liquid grace into his fingers. The weight of the gun was familiar and comforting in a way that would normally disturb him, but today it felt right.

Aiming it at Cronis, he fired a shot directly into the thigh of the insane radical, disabling the leg and rending him all but immobile. Cronis howled in pain and anger, gripping the leg as he crouched in a pool of quickly-forming blood, and looked up to glare at Heero with all the malice and hatred one might have for another human. His finger still on the trigger as those grey eyes watched him, Heero momentarily considered forgoing his promise to never kill again. A man like Cronis would never stop, would never leave them in peace…

Men like Zephyr Cronis were the same ones that had first made war necessary.

Hands tightening, Heero prepared himself to accept the consequences to his actions.

"Don't." And then it came. Gentle even in her anger, Relena's hand came to rest over his own, carefully directing the muzzle towards the floor. "You've already taken on too many burdens. You don't need to take this one."

He turned just enough to look her in the eyes, bruises forming on her cheek and around her throat where the man in question had both strangled and hit her. For that alone, Heero was willing to pull the trigger, knowing all that had been done to her over the years she had been trapped with that man. Nevertheless, he could see the pleading in her eyes.

"I'm ready to enjoy this peace we've made. Please stay with me, Heero," she asked quietly, neither demanding nor assuming. She waited patiently for his answer, her hand remaining on his while they read the expression in each other's eyes.

She had also sacrificed much for this peace. It was the least he owed her, to put aside his gun one last time, to let her rescue him. She had always been his salvation; a reprieve Cronis had never experienced. Like Relena, Heero was ready to enjoy the peace he had suffered through death, madness, and pain to achieve. He was ready, and not even Cronis would stand in their way.

It was with ease that he lowered his gun once and for all and slipped it back into its holster. His hand, once free, was filled with a small, feminine one. Relena, suddenly calm and composed despite her state of dishevelment, turned to regard the man that had caused them three years of pain and loneliness.

"You've lost this war, General Cronis."

Crippled and on the verge of failing, Zephyr Cronis seethed before them.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 26, Desperation**, At the end of his fight and his rope, Cronis tries one last tactic to win against Heero and the conflict comes to a close, for better or worse.


	26. Desperation

_Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. Maybe, in an alternate universe.... No, probably not. ::sigh::_

_AN: We're getting down to it. Three more chapters and an epilogue. Enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 26

Lady Une could only stare at the screen before her, lighting up the dark room with its glow. It had been more than an hour since she had received confirmation that the Preventer forces were successfully subduing Osiris with the help of an "anonymous" faction of soldiers. Marie Schinzer's COM message was still tucked away somewhere on her computer, explaining her husband's double-agent status and the 'faction' of soldiers that followed after the military couple in their efforts to suppress the threat that was Osiris. Unfortunately, none of them could have suspected the depth to which Zephyr Cronis was invested in Osiris and his quest to destroy Heero Yuy and Relena Peacecraft. They had all followed a hard road in the last three years, learning their strengths and their shortcomings.

However, she had never expected…

After receiving the message and feeling confident that the conflict would come to a swift end, Une had found herself delving into old records from the war and everything she could remember from the days of the Eve Wars and Treize's involvement in both Oz and the Treize Faction. She had started with rank, going from the top and heading downwards through the ranks, looking for any clues that could lead her to Zephyr Cronis and the resurrection of Osiris. What she found had held her captivated for the last fifteen minutes.

The face was younger, thinner, forcing her to check with pictures that had been recorded from the abduction of Heero and Relena, but there was no doubt that it was him. Her mouth had long ago gone dry, but she ignored the water sitting by the hand.

He was older than both of them, but he had always seemed so much younger than Treize, with his groping, longing outlook and the way he followed the Oz leader like a puppy. Back then, she had been too messed up with her own 'personality quirks' to notice the man, but he had always been lingering on the sidelines. If she had not been so caught up in her madness, she might have realized his for what it was before it had ever become a topic of concern; before Osiris had ever been a vision of rebirth and revenge. But the war had been chaotic, and those were the days when madness was the norm instead of the warning. Even Treize had been blind to her insanity until it was almost too late to change it, and only a bullet in the chest and a near-death experience had brought her back to herself again.

Unfortunately, she was exactly the type of person Treize Khushrenada attracted. He had always been the sanity in the lunacy: the calm voice and the reason where others had suffered too much loss to find their own logic. The result of that—consequences Treize knew all too well and had tried his best to quell—was the obsessive following of thousands to a cause they did not fully understand. Even she, at Treize's side, had failed to see his full vision until she had been brought back from the brink of destruction. Truly, it was a dangerous legacy left behind by the Khushrenada name, one she knew Treize regretted in his own way, but knew to be necessary in the grand scheme of things. Treize had always worked for the wellbeing of the whole, rather than the sanity of a few, and it was the sacrifice he had accepted upon his shoulders.

The weight he bore would always be great, dead or alive.

"Treize…" She stared at the screen and sighed, feeling that weight pressing on her own shoulders. "Forgive me."

Reality was always harder than the delusion.

* * *

"Your arm…"

"It's fine."

"But, Heero…" They stood together in Cronis' office, Relena fussing over Heero's state of injury. He, on the other hand, was eyeing the crippled general critically. It was too dangerous to try and move the psychotic on their own, with Heero barely mobile and Relena recovering from her own attack by the man in question, but he did not doubt the general would not be so gracious in his captive state. Even now, hands bound behind his back by the electric cord from the shattered lamp, Cronis sat seething in the far corner, grey eyes locked hatefully on them both. The bleeding in his leg was stoppered by the piece of cloth that had originally bandaged Heero's arm—the same one Relena now concentrated on.

"It's torn down to the muscle. If we don't get up to the surface soon, there's no guarantee there will be much the medics can do." He refrained from telling her he could no longer move his hand in any manner, instead surveying the office. Upon closer inspection, Relena had been able to find the light switch to turn on the overhead lights in the room, allowing them to settle into the space without worrying about the darkness. However, though they had the key to the door, there was more than a good chance that Cronis had an alternate route out if left alone.

"That isn't important right now. We have to wait until the Preventers get here before we can do anything."

"They aren't coming, you know. My men will have obliterated them all by now," Cronis growled from the corner. Heero ignored the taunt.

Relena was not so quiet, glaring at the Osiris leader pointedly. "For such a brilliant team of soldiers, they certainly haven't come to your aid yet, have they? The Preventers are more than adequate to suppress an uprising that puts so little regard in its Commander." Heero looked down at her with the ghost of surprise and she looked back at him, shrugging casually. "Three years made me a little catty. Like you don't do the exact same thing."

"Hnn." She smiled, but he could see the strain in her eyes and the way she refused to completely turn her back on their captive. Relena was less than comfortable at the idea of lingering in the same room as Zephyr Cronis, but neither of them could predict who might still be lurking out in the hallways of the compound, making their forced confinement necessary.

For now, all they could do was wait.

"Your hand is cold. Can you feel your fingers?"

"How's the arm, Yuy? I see Merrick's explosion did quite a number. Feeling faint again? How long do you think you'll last before you pass out and your little princess is left on her own?"

"Keep talking and I'll gag you with your own belt, General," Relena threatened, a tremor running through her body. Cronis must have noticed, for he smirked at her and leaned forward.

"I'd _love _to see you try, little bird. You pacifists are far more violent than you like to let on, aren't you? You'd really just like a good, rough old romp, now wouldn't you? Miss the feeling of a man between your legs, I bet. Makes you a little flustered, knowing what we've done together, how much you secretly enjoyed every moment of your liberation."

"You—"

The click of the safety was audible as Heero once again brandished his gun in the direction of the madman, eyes steely and cold. Immediately Cronis was silent, glaring daggers at the Gundam pilot. Relena stepped back even further from where the grey-eyed man sat, partially concealing herself behind Heero. The air all but crackled with the tension.

When it was clear there would be no more commentary from the general, Heero holstered the gun and returned to his survey of the room. There was no computer, no COM screen to use for contact. Furniture was sparse except for the desk and a chair, the only lamp now smashed and still in pieces on the floor. No doubt, Cronis had destroyed any evidence that had once existed in the office, leaving behind a skeleton room that would still serve his 'purpose' as he had planned it.

Still… there was no telling how long it would take for someone to come. Checking the gun for bullets, Heero considered the chances they had if they were to attempt a journey back outside. The longer they waited, the more his energy would wane. It was a dangerous game of balance.

Looking down at Relena, she returned his gaze steadily before glancing at Cronis. Voice low enough that only they could hear, she asked, "You want to try and move him, don't you?" He said nothing, confirming her question only with his gaze. She nodded once and looked immediately to the ground. A moment later, her gaze returned to his. "I trust you."

"Stay close to me."

They turned to regard Cronis in the same breath, the general smiling darkly at them. "Decided to be brave?"

"Get up," Heero heard himself say, eyes locked on the form of the man who had ruined so much of their lives. Cronis' smile only grew.

"I'll need some help. You _did_ shoot me in the leg." Relena started forward, but Heero stopped her with a hand.

"It's a good thing you've got two, then. Get up." The two men stared each other down, challenging, before Cronis scowled and forced himself to his feet with a grunt. "Walk." There was another hard stare, followed by a tentative step forward on the part of Cronis. He went down in a heap, biting back a growl of pain.

"This would be much easier with a crutch of some sort. We aren't all able to withstand bullets, Yuy."

Motioning for Relena to stay put, Heero approached the general with a wide berth, slipping behind the man so that when he was directly behind the general the muzzle of the gun was pressed firmly into Cronis' spine. It was only then that he hoisted the injured man to his feet and shoved him forward with his free hand acting as support. Locking eyes with Relena, he nodded for her to wait for them to pass before following, then slowly began to make his way towards the open doorway with Cronis in hand. The general moved far too willingly.

* * *

"God, you're heavy," Duo moaned as he shuffled through the halls of the compound. An unconscious Merrick Daye lay limp over one shoulder, the blood from his shattered kneecap starting to seep through Duo's shirt so that the Gundam pilot was prepared to leave the man behind in his own mess. Nevertheless, he was determined to see justice for Hilde, and the only way to do so was to bring a living, breathing Merrick Daye back to the Preventer's headquarters.

Sometimes, he really hated being the 'good guy'.

Unfortunately, carrying a grown man around on his back made speed a lot harder to accomplish. He had been attempting to make his way to Cronis' office for the past fifteen minutes, but frequent stops to rest and finding himself more turned around than he had expected when coming from a different section of the compound, Duo had succeeded only in running himself in circles with the inkling that he was probably somewhere near to his destination. Luckily, he was not a man easily frustrated.

"ARGH! Stupid maze!" Well, maybe a little easily.

"If there were any soldiers left, you would have just alerted all of them to your location," came a familiar voice, forcing Duo to shuffle around to regard Zechs Merquise as he approached. The tall man was conspicuously bruised on one cheek and looked uncharacteristically mussed, but he walked steadily with a rapier in one hand and a gun holstered at his hip, jacket flapping at his sides. Duo grinned.

"Lucky for me, you and Heero finished them all off before I could get down here. He's around here somewhere, I've seen his handy work on some of the guards."

"Yes, it seems to be that way," Zechs agreed, gazing down the hallway to where two men were knowingly slumped against a wall, both out cold and long relieved of their weapons. They would most likely stay that way for several more hours before waking to the worst headaches of their lives and Preventer forces staring them down. Heero Yuy had a certain knack for incapacitating the enemy.

"So, where's your ball and chain?" the braided man asked jauntily, giving his own burden a hefty shoulder bump. Zechs raised a questioning eyebrow, but waved off the question.

"He's secure for the time being. Any sign of Yuy or Cronis?"

Duo shook his head, "No, I was on my way to Cronis' office to see if either of them was there. Obviously, Heero isn't in their custody anymore if he's knocking out soldiers, but he can't be in good shape after all of this. As for the Princess, I haven't seen hide or hair of her, but you can bet Heero's hot on her heels if he hasn't gotten to her already." Zechs' eyes hardened at the mention of his sister and both men turned to face the hallway ahead of them. "Cronis' office should be just up this way… I hope."

"You hope?"

Duo ignored the blatant stare and started walking.

"Maxwell…"

Hopefully Heero was a better navigator than either of them.

* * *

"ARGH! Stupid maze!" The cry echoed off the walls and down to the office, faint but audible. Just having reached the door, Relena was still standing beneath the frame as the voice surrounded them and filled her with hope, her eyes snapping to where Heero stood with Cronis just a few steps ahead. Both men had also stopped to listen.

"Duo!" She could not resist saying the name of her friend as his voice filled her with comfort at the knowledge that they were no longer alone; help was coming! She could see the subtlest quirk of Heero's mouth, telling her that he felt the same sense of relief.

They were almost safe again. Just a little bit further…

She had started to walk without realizing it, until she was almost side-by-side with both men. By then, it was too late to recognize her mistake.

The hand shot out faster than she could see, gripping her wrist and twisting so that she was forced forward and around. At the same moment, Cronis used the momentum of her body to swing himself out and behind, away from Heero's grasp so that the gun was all too suddenly pointed at her face instead of Cronis' back. But that, too, soon disappeared as Cronis' free hand rose and swung to disarm Heero, the loosened remnants of the lamp cord still hanging on his wrist. Securing the gun and turning it back on its owner, it was with wide eyes that she watched Cronis pull the trigger.

"NO!"

This time she was too late to stop the bullet, blood splashing onto her face as she watched a new hole tear open in Heero's shoulder. Cronis was laughing behind her, short and evil; he was celebrating in his destruction, and she suddenly knew that he would always love to tear them down, whether in word or in deed. Red washed through her vision.

"NO!"

The sound of her scream pulsing in her ears, Relena drove her elbow backwards until it found the flesh below a ribcage, feeling the air unexpectedly rush outwards and the hand that held her wrist release. She used his surprise to do exactly as Cronis had done a moment before and wrestle away the gun from limp fingers, then spun herself frantically away with the weapon clutched close to her breast. The moment she stopped, the gun was pointed at her intended target, blood rushing in her ears as her finger went taut on the trigger.

"Relena!" The sound of Milliardo's voice was startling, but too late to help Zephyr Cronis.

"Whoa! Princess! That gun doesn't suit you very well." Duo. Memories of Hilde flooded Relena's mind, making her hands shake as she stared down the man who had tormented her for three years. She had always been the pacifist, always tried to resolve conflict with peaceful solutions, but a man like Zephyr Cronis did not go away just because she refused to fight. If anything, it made him thirst more to conquer her. He lusted after control: control of her, control of Osiris, control of Heero, control of freedom… He would never leave her alone…

"Relena, put the gun down," Milliardo pressed her, but she shook her head.

"He shot Heero! He_ raped_ me and he shot Heero and he'll never leave us alone unless he's dead!" Her hands were shaking so fiercely it became difficult to hold the gun, but she kept the muzzle pointed fiercely towards the man before her, staring him down. Cronis was smiling manically, silently daring her. "Three years, Milliardo! He took away three years of our lives and he'll never pay for it! He'll never feel remorse! He'll never stop!" Her eyes were wild, she knew; crazed with fear and anger and overwhelming helplessness at dragging them all into the life of the madman before them. Tears pooled and began to run down her cheeks. "What choice do I have?"

"Are you going to shoot me, little bird? Yuy couldn't kill me; what makes you think you can do it?" He was grinning at her as though he were still in control. Maybe he was. Zechs and Duo were speaking behind her, trying to coax her to drop the gun, but she no longer heard them. The pulsing in her ears was hurting her. Her hands were cramping from the weight of the gun.

"Don't think I won't, you bastard."

"I'd love to see you try, little girl." An immortal, mocking grin staring at her through her nightmares; that was what Cronis would become to her, never letting her rest even if she escaped him for a time.

Breath erratic, body trembling, Relena squeezed the trigger.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 27, Boundaries**, Relena stands on the cusp between pacifism and war, ready to take a life in the name of peace. She must make a choice, but no matter which way she goes, Cronis' war has come to an end.


	27. Boundaries

_Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. GW never has been and never will be, but all the original characters are (of course, they're all the bad guys... figures...)_

_AN: Almost done! Two more chapters and the epilogue! Woo!_

* * *

Chapter 27

"Don't." Pained, low, but steady, Heero's voice reached her ears above the din in her head. Instantly Relena's hands loosened, the muzzle remaining leveled at Cronis. Behind the general, the bleeding Gundam pilot had risen to his knees with one hand pressed over his right shoulder. The fingers of his left hand were already covered in a fine sheen of red, but Heero looked as though he barely felt it as he met her eye-to-eye. It was hard to see his expression clearly through the tears in her eyes, but she could imagine that gentle patience he reserved for her.

"He'll keep trying to hurt us," she explained in a barely controlled voice. The tremors were growing worse, her fingers numb. Was this what shock felt like?

"I know."

"He'll find us again, even if we hide, even if he gets arrested."

"I know."

Her face, schooled in anger until now, began to break as the tears became overwhelming, falling in torrents. All the dignity she had retained, all she had endured, welled up in her and pushed, breaking down the walls she had built so carefully to protect herself. The gun was heavy in her hands. She was tired of being strong. She was tired of putting on the façade when she really just wanted to curl up and disappear.

"He'll haunt me…"

"I'll be there to wake you."

"Heero…"

"Put down the gun, Relena." He said it confidently, rising to his feet and gazing at her as though he had never been hurt. He always looked so strong to her, even at his weakest. "You would never forgive yourself if you took a life, even his. It isn't in your nature."

"I think I might vomit," Cronis groaned, ripping her attention back to the man in question. Relena went rigid, hands tightening again. The grey-eyed demon laughed in delight. "Come, little bird, I'm waiting for my punishment." His smile was shards of glass in her skin. "You're right, you know. I'll keep coming back unless you do it. I'll never leave you alone as long as we're all still living. Somebody has to die, and Yuy refuses to rise to the challenge. Shoot me, or I'll become your living nightmare." He wanted her to, she knew. As insane as he was, he wanted her to shoot him if it meant her undoing; if it meant he won the private war he was fighting in his head, Cronis was glad to die for the cause—a spectacular martyr for a false ideal he had never understood. There would be no greater triumph than to tear down the morals of Relena Peacecraft herself.

For once in her life, Relena wanted to give in to such madness. Almost.

Her gaze shifted back to Heero again. "I'm so tired." He nodded his understanding and she felt that strength seep into her, as though he were a draw of power that she had been lacking before now. Blinking slowly, she felt the tears begin to recede, her breath slowing.

"Put it to rest."

Her eyes shifted, and for the last time she gazed upon Zephyr Cronis. "To say I will never think of you again would be a lie," she said quietly, calm settling over her and steadying her hands. Seeing his plan failing before his eyes, Cronis began to seethe. "But rest assured that I will live a long, healthy life without your influence. I will continue what Treize Khushrenada envisioned with his death: a world without war, which can resolve its conflicts peacefully without guns or mobile suits. You will become a paragraph in my life, and the only power you will have is to show others what war can do to a man so deeply swallowed by it. From this moment on, you will be no more than a memory."

"You little—" Cronis was red-faced, jaw tight and fists clenched. At her words, he rushed forward in an awkward hobble, intent on some form of pain or attack, cuing her. Relena pulled the trigger and heard the ring of the shot as though a bell had been struck, the weight falling from her shoulders as Zephyr Cronis hit the ground. Then she dropped the gun and kicked it behind her, hearing it skitter away to some unknown destination, finally free of the hold it had held over her. For the first time in three years, her heart felt light.

The silence was deafening.

"You didn't need that other leg, did you?"

She refused to spare a glance at the general as he rolled in agony on the ground, his other leg now sporting a bullet wound to match the first that Heero had made. Instead, she skirted around his crouched form, eyes locked on the man she trusted undeniably with her life. Stopping just short of where he stood, they drank in the sight of each other. This close, she could see how he wavered on his feet and the tiny crease between his eyebrows that said he was concentrating with everything he had just to stay upright. Without a word, she slipped his good arm over her shoulder and let him lean on her.

"We need to get you to a medic."

"Hnn…"

Cronis was far too involved in his own pain to stop them as they stepped past him and down the hallway.

* * *

Duo could not quite make his jaw close.

"The princess just shot someone!" He supposed he said it to Zechs, but really he just needed to hear the words. Relena Peacecraft, the Princess, the Pacifist, had blatantly—and apparently gleefully—shot a man without remorse. Granted, the man was probably the most insane asshole Duo had ever met, but... _the princess had _shot_ someone! _The thought alone made his head feel fuzzy.

Zechs said nothing, standing stoically by as Relena and Heero approached. It wasn't until they stopped a few feet away that the blond-haired man stepped forward, removing his coat to drape over Relena's shoulders in a silent gesture. The Princess's eyes seemed to shine.

"I'll meet you up top?"

"Yes."

Zechs turned to let the couple pass, watching them walk together with muted gaze. Even Duo could not read what went on behind the eyes of the Lightning Count, and that was saying something after years of knowing Heero. Instead, he took a few steps back, Daye slung over one shoulder, and jabbed a thumb in the direction the lovers had gone.

"I'll go with 'em. Make sure they stay out of trouble and save the deep, life-changing make-out sessions for later." The look Zechs shot him was not one of humor. Duo laughed in his stead, turning around and waving as he went. "Don't worry, Zechs, I'm sure they'll invite you to the wedding!"

"Duo." Heero's voice echoing back through the hallway just made the moment that much better.

"What? You're like a match made in heaven: you can both take a man's legs right out from under him without blinking!"

"Duo!" Despite what had just occurred, Relena could not help but smile in her reprimand; Zephyr Cronis was already just what she had said he would be: a memory.

Jogging to catch up with his friends, Duo blocked out the idea of what Zechs had in mind for Cronis. Despite his reputation as a loner, Milliardo Peacecraft was unquestionably protective of his younger sister, and unlike Heero, he had no qualms in eliminating a threat when he saw one. But, then again, not everyone could be as pure of heart as Relena and Heero—it was what drew people to the both of them; what made them such a powerful combination. That was where people like himself and Zechs came in. It was their responsibility to do the dirty work, whether the lovers knew it or not.

Someone had to be the bad guy.

* * *

Zechs stared for a long moment at the writhing form of the Osiris general, scrutinizing the face of the man that had cost them all so much in dignity, time, and pain. Cronis was not an impressive man: tall, reasonably muscled but by no means well-built, watery grey eyes, gaunt cheeks, and a five-fingered forehead. On one hand, he may have been handsome: sharp features that somehow seemed to translate to beauty in the female mind, but all that Zechs saw was a sickly, bitter man with dull eyes. He was hardly impressed.

"I remember you." Cronis had been younger then, called by a different name that Zechs no longer knew. Wild-eyed and hungry for war—that was the man Cronis had always been, following on the heels of Treize with no realization for what he had been fighting for in the first place. Yes, he recognized those grey eyes and all the hatred burning behind them.

"Do you, now?" The question was more a cough of pain, but those eyes shifted to meet pale blue. Both men stared each other down, but inevitably Zechs won out as Cronis attempted to relieve the pain in his new wound by changing positions. He looked furtively in the direction Relena had gone, but both knew that possibility was long gone. Instead, Cronis elected to look anywhere but at the tall soldier. Even someone as insane as he knew his short-term limits, although Zechs could only imagine the revenge such a man was cooking in the depths of his mind.

They would never be free of Cronis while he lived.

"So why does a traitor like you care what I do to one little girl and a Gundam pilot, both of whom were your enemies in the war? What makes the Lightning Count rise from the dead to talk to a lowly soldier like me?"

"You did all of this in Treize's name."

"My every breath is in the name of Treize."

"Treize is dead. His ideals were fulfilled, we all saw to that, him most of all."

"Ha! What would you know of that? You betrayed those ideals, turned against the very man you claimed was your closest ally. You, Zechs Merquise, have no business claiming any knowledge of Treize's ideals." Cronis stared him down as though he were a bug to be squashed: irritating and unnecessary in the grand scheme of the world. Zechs felt himself scowl.

"This coming from a man who was little more than a groupie, much less a confidant. Working beside a man and knowing a man are two very different things. Treize worked towards a cause you could have never understood. He had faith in people like Relena Peacecraft and Heero Yuy—believed in their purity and an idealism he himself held. The difference that Treize acknowledged between the Gundam Pilots and himself was that they had no reason to hide their ideals behind a mask. While he worked behind the guise of Oz, the pilots were free to announce their opposition of the war and their hope for peace. Treize put all his resources into supporting the ideals of such purists."

"You're wrong!" Cronis spit vehemently, perhaps wishing death of the tall soldier. Zechs was no longer paying attention.

"He was an excellent performer, Treize. I always thought that if he hadn't been a mobile suit pilot, he would have made a brilliant actor. He could make people believe anything he wanted them to, knew how to manipulate them to fulfill his plans whether they knew they were doing it or not. Oz was his greatest vehicle, providing him with all the power he needed to end war; to end the necessity that had first created Oz and the separation of the colonies. He wanted unity, but more than that he wanted an end to all human conflict. He meant to create a finale to the Waltz. Men like you were mere pawns to this function."

Seething, red, Cronis tried to rise and failed, his legs buckling and dribbling blood. "You are a liar. So help me, I'll cut out your tongue and stuff it down your throat. Then I'll go after that little whore and her lover and I'll make her feel every inch of my hatred—"

For the third time that day, a bullet ripped its way through Cronis' body, puncturing a lung instead of a thigh. Blood bubbled up from the stunned, gaping mouth of the general, running down his chin to join the growing pool beneath him.

Zechs words were a snarl, "You will never again touch her, see her, think of her. A man like you could never have understood him; never understand them. Their hearts are both too kind to be tainted with your hatred, and their vows towards each other are too strong to break by troubling themselves with your pathetic life."

A bloody laugh gurgled up from the throat of the injured Cronis and he looked upon the former White Fang leader with contempt in his blood-shot eyes. "What fools… They couldn't even kill me."

Zechs' frown deepened considerably, but it was accompanied by a cruel smirk. "I would have to agree. But, I, on the other hand," grey eyes widened as the click of a pistol hammer echoed in the quiet of the room, "am not so foolish…"

The sound of a gunshot exploded within the small, enclosed space, but it would never be heard beyond those thick walls.

* * *

They would have walked in silence if it weren't for Duo, his endless chatter filling the hallways all the way up to the surface. It was a slow journey down the final stretch, the stairs having been a long and strenuous challenge that had all but drained what remained of Heero's strength. She could feel him struggling not to rest the entirety of his weight on her body, his feet dragging and head drooping low. Had she not been his support, Relena doubted the exhausted pilot would have even made it out of the underground, the blood from his latest wound soaking the jacket that Milliardo had given her to wear.

_Soon_, she thought, _soon we'll be home and safe_.

Suddenly Heero's legs buckled and they both went down in a heap, Relena battling gravity to prevent him from landing harshly. Duo sprang forward as they fell, but with his own burden the only help he could lend was to shove his free shoulder under Heero's injured arm and act as a prop. In the end, the four of them lay sprawled in awkward positions on the metal floor, artificial sunlight streaming down on them through the open doorway only feet away. Heero groaned, but he did not attempt to rise.

Looking up at Duo, Relena shook her head, the braided pilot understanding easily. Untangling himself from the heap, he unloaded Merrick Daye onto the floor and helped her ease Heero against the wall of the compound before once again hoisting the elusive Osiris general onto his shoulder. Half-grinning, half-scowling, Duo looked towards the open doorway to the sea of bodies that moved beyond. Only voices echoed back.

"You two stay here. I'll go find Sally and send her in to get you with some help." He started walking, braid swinging behind him, before glancing back one more time to watch them silently for a long moment. Then, "take care of him, Princess." Relena smiled as he walked away.

Turning to the man in question, Relena found Prussian-blue already looking back at her, Heero's eyes drunk with pain but strangely piercing. She looked back with unwavering emotion, her brow creasing with gentle concern. "I would tell you to try to rest, but I'm afraid you wouldn't want to wake up if you did."

"Hn." The sound was neither compliance nor confirmation, only an acknowledgment of her words. Her chest tightening, her fingers sought his out, ignoring the drying blood that coated hers in return.

"Duo's gone to get help. I'm sure Sally will have some choice words for both of us, though hopefully you'll be saved from your tongue-lashing until you're healed. You _will_ heal, Heero." She looked pointedly up at him but he merely gazed back until she dropped her eyes to look at her lap. "I don't know what I would have done if you…"

His hand squeezed hers, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"Heero…"

"I already told you; I'm not going anywhere."

She sniffled as tears flooded her eyes yet again that day, her own grip tightening around his hand. Resting her head on his good shoulder, Relena hid her face against the bare skin and forced herself to breathe. Gently, Heero's cheek came to rest on the crown of her head.

"It was you."

"Hm?"

"It was you. You told me before that I kept you alive while you were prisoner, but it was you who kept me alive." There was a moment of motionlessness when she felt detached from her body and it was with wonder that she slowly raised her head to gaze upon him. His eyes were glittering, voice low and monotonous. "You keep me alive."

Neither of them heard the voices that called down the hall to them, or acknowledged the flashlights and bodies that came pouring in their direction. Relena failed to feel the smile spread across her face, forgot the tears in her eyes.

Three years…

"I love you."

* * *

_AN: No, I'm not telling you who said it. Live with that disappointment._

**Next Chapter: 28, Closure**, Back at base, the full truth about Zephyr Cronis is revealed, Hilde's fate is discovered, and the ends begin to wrap themselves up. For the first time in three years, the Gundam Pilots and posse find relief and happiness.


	28. Closure

Disclaimer: Seriously, do you really need this anymore? GW ain't mine. Yes, I used the word 'ain't'. Too bad. Suck it up.

AN: This is essentially the last 'chapter', but I've got two more posts (think of them as epilogues 1 & 2) before I'm completely done. So, enjoy the wrap up.

* * *

Chapter 28

"Drop that bag right now, Heero Yuy!" It was really more of a screech than a command, one which Heero promptly ignored as he hoisted the duffle bag over his right shoulder and proceeded to carry it to the waiting limousine, drop it into the open trunk, and slam the trunk shut with one hand. Turning around, he looked at her pointedly with eyebrow quirked. Relena fumed. "I can't believe you! Two surgeries, a month of rehab, and you think you're Superman! What happens if you damage the muscle again? You can barely move your fingers as it is, I don't care how strong your muscles are! I'm perfectly capable of carrying my own bag, I'll have you know. I don't need you re-injuring yourself just because you want to prove how macho—"

There was something eerily satisfying about wrapping the offending arm around her waist and yanking. Predictably, he caught her off guard with the gesture, sending her sprawling against him with fingers splayed over his button-up shirt and eyes wide with surprise. He smirked down at her.

"Feels fine to me."

In truth, the muscles were tight and the movement awkward. Even after a month, his body was only just recovering from the severity of the wounds he had suffered under the hands of Osiris and Zephyr Cronis. Although most of his injuries were all but healed, the damage to his right arm had been significant. He would be subject to months more of rehabilitation to regain what was available of his motor functions, his fingers resistant to movement while his bicep tended to spasm without warning. Of course, he kept all of these facts far from general knowledge and used the arm as much as possible.

"You are impossible," Relena scolded half-heartedly, sighing in resignation. Her head dropped to rest against his collarbone, arms winding around his waist so that they stood comfortably linked. The gesture was still foreign, but he was slowly becoming accustomed to her expressions of affection. Since he had woken in the hospital ward at the Preventers Headquarters, she had been almost starved for human touch, constantly threading her fingers through his while they walked or setting a hand on his arm if they were seated. It was a new sensation to the solitary soldier, but Heero found himself unable to pull away; he was not sure if he really wanted to.

"You're finally going home."

She laughed softly, keeping her face buried against his chest. "'Home'. It sounds so foreign after all this time. How do I go back to a regular life after everything that's happened? I don't know if I remember how to lead a normal life anymore."

"You'll do fine. No one expects everything to return to the way it was, at least not right away."

"Hm… Yes, I suppose so…" They stood that way for a moment more, arms wrapped around each other. He could feel her breath ghosting against his neck, steady and warm. She was here, alive, cradled against him as though she had never gone. Satisfaction curled once again in his belly before he released her and turned back towards the Preventer building. The car was loaded, ready to take them both back to the Dorlian Mansion, but first…

"What do you think it is Miss Une wants to talk to everyone about?" Relena asked speculatively as they entered the headquarters and waited for the elevator. "Do you think it's about Osiris?"

"More than likely."

The Preventers had been in a flurry since the repression of the rogue faction, digging up documents and testimonies from the surviving soldiers to unravel the history behind the revival of Osiris and the men that had been so important in its near-success. The compound where the battle had taken place had been stripped and raided for papers, files, computers, and data until every nook was bare, concrete smashed and air ducts swept for any possibility of hidden records. The underground complex was now little more than metal and earth, uninhabitable without considerable effort to recreate the housing.

The elevator pinged to let them know they had arrived at their floor, the doors opening to reveal a grinning Duo. "Yo! Lovebirds! Look who I brought with me."

"Hilde!" Relena rushed forward to greet the dark-haired girl who sat quietly in a wheelchair, her throat wrapped in a thin bandage. She had woken only a week ago, voice weak and scratchy, but working. The bandages were more for reassurance than necessity, the remaining healing now happening below the surface where gauze and ointment could be no help. Heero had seen the scar that would remain in her skin as a reminder, but somehow he doubted that Hilde would mind in the end… With Duo to feed her battered ego, it would probably become a proud war wound.

Leaving the two women to talk quietly, Heero approached the braided man with a speculative glance. "She looks well." Duo's grin broadened.

"Ah, you know Hilde: take a knife to her and she's ready to kick ass the next day. It reminds me of when we first met her back on Libra," he laughed affectionately, watching the woman in question out of the corner of his eye. Heero felt one side of his own mouth kick up into a subtle smile.

"And Daye?"

"Schinzer took him to be tried on Earth for war crimes." The unspoken question lingered in the air, forcing Duo to regard Heero with serious eyes despite the smile that lingered on his face. "I figured it wasn't my place, seeing as Hilde'll recover and I'm not really the most objective person when it comes to what he did. I don't know enough about who he used to be and who he became during the war to judge what he did beyond the personal perspective. The old man will be better for all of that, I think. Hell, I wouldn't want to face Solo after everything we've done since we first stepped into the Gundams! Family is the worst guilt-trip anyone can ask for. I figure that's a pretty good punishment."

"Hn."

Laughing again, Duo clapped a hand over Heero's good shoulder without a thought. "Man, I feel like we're all getting so old! Twenty-one is like a threshold where you realize that it's all downhill from here and you have to give everyone that second chance. Geez, a couple years ago I would have just left that bastard in the building and blown it to smithereens." He sighed longingly, shaking her head. "This 'getting older' stuff sure does suck sometimes."

"Hn."

"What are you talking about?" Relena asked suspiciously as she wheeled Hilde over to where they stood. Waving his hands frantically, Duo wagged off the question in lieu of stealing the chair away from his friend.

"Nothing, nothing. Heero was just demonstrating his amazing knack for the human language. Did you know he can recite the entire Oz doctrine backwards with his eyes closed in less than five minutes? In E minor?" Both women laughed, leaving Heero to follow after the trio with a shake of his head.

It was true, though. If he had been a younger man, more than likely he would have shot Cronis the first moment they had met: killed the guards with a few choice blows, relieved them of their guns, and put a bullet right between the eyes of the Osiris leader. Three years ago, he would have felt justified in breaking his oath never to kill again. Now…

"_You took care of it?" _

"_He won't bother her again." The white of Zechs' shirt was flecked with blood, the water running briefly red before splashing upon the earth and melding with the dark of the dirt. Bandaged and half-delirious with pain, Heero watched the blond-haired man wash the evidence from his hands and strip himself of the soiled shirt, throwing it away into the woods beyond the compound. _

"_She'll notice that you're not wearing a shirt." _

_Shades of blue clashed with each other as the two men glared at one another. "Not if you act like the victim and leave in one of the transports before me."_

"_Hn."_

"…_It's better that she doesn't know the truth." _

"_You'd rather she think he died in a cell somewhere? Like he intended for her?"_

_Running a wet hand through his hair, Zechs straightened to his full height and glanced towards the caravan of trucks crowded around the compound. Relena was tucked away in one of them, medics tending to the bruises and cuts left behind from her struggle with Cronis."Yes. She needs to know he's dead, but she doesn't need to know how it happened. She would feel guilty; believe that she forced me into it." _

_It was because they both knew her so well that Heero realized the truth of those words. "Hn…"_

"Heero? Are you alright?" Looking down, he found her gazing up at him in concern. Her bruises had faded weeks ago, but he could still imagine them there on her face the day after: swollen cheek, cut lip, black eye, butterflies darkening her neck on either side where Cronis had choked her. Eyes narrowing, he forced himself to nod, although he knew she did not believe him.

"Fine."

"Yo! You two coming? No time for kissy-face when Une is waiting for us," Duo teased from down the hall. Hilde punched him in the arm in retribution, eliciting a childish 'Ow! Babe!'

"Heero?"

"Duo's right; Une's waiting."

He knew the answer was insufficient, her scrutiny burning a hole in his back as he started to walk. A moment later she was beside him, linking her fingers through his once more and holding tightly. "We'll talk about it later."

They entered the darkened conference room together, a sea of familiar faces already gathered before a digital projection. Predictably, they were the last to arrive, Lady Une at the head of the room with an expression that did not quite convey irritation. "Glad you four could join us. Take your seats and we'll begin."

Settling into one of the chairs offered, Heero found himself staring at an old picture of Zephyr Cronis dressed in Oz fatigues, grey eyes staring blankly into space for the military photo. His face was smoother than it had been in the compound: less lines, sharper angles. The eyes lacked the madness that had gleamed so brightly a month ago.

"His real name was Andrew Zephan Crowe. He was 27 at the time of Treize's death and a member of the Treize Faction. He worked almost directly under His Excellency, which would explain his obsession with Treize's 'ideals'. All known blood relatives are deceased, most during the era of the Alliance and the early days of the OZ coup d'etat, so there's no confirmation over where he was in the years between the end of the war and the present, but it's believed that he used that time to gather the soldiers to make up Osiris. Reports tell us that he specifically targeted former members of the Specials and the Treize Faction that, like him, had lost all or most of their families to the wars. Many of the captured Osiris soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress that was only fed by Cronis' ideals, which would support the disarray after the separation of the generals," Une explained calmly, her back to the COM screen.

"Cut off the head and the body falls a-twitchin'," Duo offered grimly, earning an array of expressions from the occupants of the room. Lady Une ignored the comment.

"We don't have all the information completely organized yet, but there were blueprints in the compound for new designs of mobilesuits, and the very earliest stages of weapons development. From the bird's-eye view we have at the moment of the situation, apprehending Osiris when we did possibly prevented another era of military dominance such as what we saw with the Alliance and OZ. Casualties outside of our… inner ranks," brown eyes scanned the faces of the people gathered together, hesitating on some longer than others, "were minimum, for both Osiris and Preventer. Of the Generals, both Merrick Daye and Oren Linnux are being held pending trial. General Schinzer is still occupying L2 and helping to reassimilate some of the Osiris officers back into society." She hesitated on the last of the four, and Heero could not help but slant his own gaze to the woman at his side. Relena's eyes were fixated on her hands.

"The remains of Andrew Crowe were buried in a public cemetery, in an unmarked grave, as there were no relatives available to claim them." It was all any of them could offer, and the room remained silent after the declaration, as though they all needed the time to digest the knowledge that the nightmare was finally over. Beside him, Relena sighed and the heaviness lifted subtly.

"What I don't understand is why," Hilde rasped quietly, her voice stronger than it had been upon waking but still a ghost of its previous timbre.

"Dude was insane, Hil," Duo offered bitterly, his hand squeezing her shoulder gently.

Heero found himself shaking his head and looking up at the picture of Andrew Crowe that stared out from the screen. "It was more than that. He believed every word he said. He thought Treize really meant to become a god over humanity. Then, when Treize died and that misunderstood ideal was taken away, his training as a soldier told him to carry on that ideal in the only way he understood. War was sanity."

"And we took that away…" It was like dawn had broken suddenly in her eyes, the understanding crashing so hard into her that Heero felt Relena visibly shake beside him. He knew then that, despite her scars and her pain, Relena Peacecraft had suddenly found forgiveness for Zephyr Cronis in that startling, convicted manner that had always drawn Heero to her. Day by day, he could see her slowly regaining the footing that had made her Queen of the World and Vice Foreign Minister.

Around the darkened room, Heero watched as the other pilots acknowledged the information in their own way: passive stoicism, a pitying smile, a bitter nod, the narrowing of eyes. Zechs seemed unmoved by the revelation, but his hands twitched subtly in recognition of that same teetering sense of sanity outside of the battlefield. They had all walked to that edge, and at one point or another each of them had jumped head-first in the belief that they could no longer turn back. The difference was the women that now sat beside them; this strange mottled group of people that had somehow pulled each other back across that line time and again.

They were all dangling on the end of someone else's rope. Cronis' had been cut a long time ago. It was a bitter pill to swallow for any of them.

Une was the first to break the silence, regaining her composure as a Commander almost immediately and returning to the task at hand. "I called you all in here to debrief you on the situation, and also to let you know that you all have two weeks paid vacation effective immediately, whether you work for Preventer or not. It's all been arranged. What you choose to do with that time is up to all of you, but I would suggest using it _appropriately_," her glare reached all of them. "You're all dismissed."

As a group they rose, the chatter idle between the women and almost non-existent between the men. Only moments passed before they left in their own respective couples, no one needed the reassurance of goodbyes or fond farewells; they all knew that life, if not some twisted sense of fate, would throw them all back together again when it was most opportune.

Three years later, it was time to enjoy the greetings rather than the partings.

* * *

**Next Chapter: 29, New Beginnings**, In which the author gets all her sappy love scenes that she totally deprives herself of too often. Life after war for the pilots and their lady-friends.


	29. New Beginnings

Chapter 29

_Xx/xx/A.C. 201 _

_I can't believe I'm finally home; everything seems so surreal. Pagan hasn't changed a bit, but he did finally replace the pink limousine with a black one (he claims it was for professional purposes, but I have it on good authority that the transmission practically dropped out of the car). He worries about me every time I walk out the door, but I think he knows that everything is going to be okay from now on, especially considering the detail they have on me when I work now. _

_Terraforming talks are going well, but I think Milliardo is manipulating things from behind the scenes. Every time I walk into a conference room, the committee members look alarmed. Then again, that could just be Heero. He's been following me everywhere lately, and the media has started to label him as my bodyguard despite the plethora of men-in-black that insist on escorting me all of the ten feet it takes to walk from the car to the front door. I'm waiting to wake up one of these days to find that he's somehow reassigned all of them to different details so they don't get in his way. _

_Speaking of the devil, he's sticking around this time. Sometimes I think I catch him patrolling outside my bedroom window, and although that may or may not be the truth (may is more likely), I sometimes wish that he would just-_

"Hey!" Relena found herself squealing as her laptop was abruptly stolen from beneath her fingers, leaning back over the couch arm until she was able to see Duo walking away with the small black box in his hands. "Give that back!" She practically fell off the couch in her haste to follow him, grappling at him from both sides as he held the computer up and out of reach, grinning dangerously.

"What is it that you wish, Princess? That's a dangerous sentence, you know; wishes get women in trouble. You should ask Hilde, she'll tell you all about wishing for tall-dark-and-handsome and getting me, though I'm personally biased on the matter and think she's got it all wron-Whoops! Almost dropped it there, sorry, sorry! But really, you should-OW! OW! OW! Okay, okay, I give!" They had slowly been dancing towards the kitchen of the rustic cabin where she had chosen to stay for her summer vacation, but a firm tug on his braid sent the jovial pilot cringing apologetically, the laptop instantly lowered to eye-level, which she freely took advantage of. Inwardly, Relena thanked Hilde for providing her with Duo's 'CEASE AND DESIST button'. "No fair, Princess! You cheat!" Like the man he was, Duo pouted.

Stealing the laptop back into her own arms, the newly reinstated Vice Foreign Minister jealously hugged the console to her chest and did her best to scowl at her braided friend where he stood rubbing his scalp. "Reading a girl's diary is off-limits, Maxwell," she told him in her very best Wufei impression, backing away cautiously in case he decided to pounce when she turned around. "A girl's thoughts are private, and I can wish anything about Heero Yuy I damn well want to without yo…u…" It was only a fleeting acknowledgement that she had hit something solid.

Duo's smirk was teeth-grindingly triumphant. "What was that, Princess?"

"Duo…" The warning rumbled up from the chest at her back, smooth and low, but with a silky quality Relena had come to associate with Heero's silent-but-deadly side. The cheeky American had the decency to look chastised.

"Duo Maxwell! You'd better not be teasing Miss Relena again!" The call came fainter than it might once have, but there was no mistaking the woman behind it, and before Relena could blink Duo had retreated with a sheepish grin into the hall. She could hear Hilde's voice carry back to the kitchen as the small German rightfully chewed her boyfriend out.

"You should lock the door if you don't want him doing that."

"I like sitting on the sofa," she argued, closing the laptop and placing it upon the countertop. When she turned to face him, he had yet to move from where he had entered behind her, watching her with those Prussian eyes and a closed expression. She had discovered over the months since her rescue that he chose when he wanted to reveal his thoughts to her, and though it was frustrating when he shut her out, she was also flattered that he thought she knew him well enough to warrant such a distinction. Now, it was simply the question of what exactly he did not want her to see. "You've been scarce the past few days. Are you working on something?"

"Hn."

"Anything you want to tell me about?"

"…Not yet." There was something in the way he said it that made her heart quicken. His face remained impassive, but something had changed between one question and the next. Involuntarily, she stepped towards him, head leaning subtly to the side and a smile slowly blossoming on her lips. Truly, she was learning awful habits from Duo.

"Will I like it?"

"Yes." No hesitation, no doubt. If she loved him for nothing else, that would be enough.

"How long will I have to wait?" She had been raised to a rich family, and before she had met Heero she had been a spoiled child, but she felt that haughtiness rise in her chest as though the past six years had never happened.

"Until it's ready."

She huffed, short and dramatic, and was rewarded by seeing one edge of his mouth twitch upwards. Her own smile began to transform as she drew steadily closer. "You're impossible."

"Funny, everyone else says I'm Perfect."

She laughed before she could stop herself, too stunned by his teasing to restrain the impulse. Allowing herself to tumble against him so that her cheek rested against his shoulder, Relena wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tightly, rewarded once again when she felt steady hands come to rest at her hips. It had been a game of sorts between them, a way to thresh out the boundaries and test the people they had become in the time they had been apart. She would goad him, and he would rise to the challenge, but the terms of their game changed day-by-day. Many times the banter was gentle, soothing: a reassurance that they would not wake from a dream to find the world cold and lonely; but, then there were nights like these when they were introduced to facets of each other that were both new and fascinating, where voices rang loud and large, and she felt as though the childhood that they had lost was somehow being repaid in leaps of time.

Fear clenched her heart without warning, the sensation causing her arms to clutch tighter around him. Joy was so easily wiped away…

Even at the depths of her agony within Osiris, Relena had never considered herself a desperate woman—damaged, perhaps; scarred, certainly, but never desperate. She had lived through an era of endless wars and had survived Hell to come out the other side, but she had done so always with some measure of control. Now, with peace and happiness so clear upon the horizon, she felt her chest constrict in terror at the thought that one simple act could tear apart the fragile bonds that allowed her to hold an elusive, suicidal, nameless former Gundam pilot in her arms as surely as though he were hers to keep.

It was madness.

"Relena." His fingers were warm as they glided over her cheek and through her hair, the other hand drawing her gently to arms-length so that he could look her in the eye. His arms felt firm beneath her palms, as unwavering as the Prussian-blue eyes that gazed at her. "I'll protect you."

"Promise?" The selfishness welled in her, her altruistic tendencies berating her for acting so outrageously, but for once she allowed herself the satisfaction of coveting something: Heero.

"Hn."

They lingered that way, his hands settled on the curve of her shoulders and hers on his forearms. Her eyes wandered from his face and down the length of his arms, settling on his fingers before crawling back up to his chest. Tentatively, her own hand grazed over his right shoulder.

"How has your arm been?"

He hesitated, considering the appendage in question, and stepped away from her to flex the offending hand. "The muscle still spasms on occasion, but all other motor functions have returned to normal. The spasms will eventually subside with time and use." Watching him, Relena could picture the scars beneath his shirt: one truth even his incredible body could not disguise. She had seen it accidentally a week ago when he had been swimming, the shoulder a mass of twisted tissue that seemed out of place amidst otherwise flawless skin. He had paused, returning her gaze unwaveringly, then moved on as though she had not been staring. Despite both surgeries, the scars had remained: forever reminders to her of the trouble she had caused him.

"I'm glad that it's healing so well." She was ashamed to admit that that fact alone eased her guilt, if only a little. She forced a smile, then turned back to the countertop to rearrange the papers sitting beside her laptop, trying not to look back at him and think of the past three years.

Duo had told her in bits and pieces about the half-life Heero had lived… She wondered if there was ever anything good she had given him in their time knowing each other; had yet to fathom why he was still there, beside her, strong and unflappable, when she felt so weak and powerless next to him. His presence alone-or the thought that he was alive somewhere out in the world, always fighting for what he believed in-had been the driving force in her life since she was sixteen, but Relena still did not understand what it was that brought him back to her time and again.

"You didn't do this, Relena." The words made her flinch. He was far too good at reading her. "You did nothing but what was necessary to end a war. Treize did the same; the problem was how his actions were interpreted. People cannot mistake a woman who advocates peace, but Treize played a game that few people even have the capacity to understand. These were the consequences." He did not try to turn her to face him but she could feel the warmth of him at her back, the breath tickling across her neck. She knew he was right. Knew, but still felt the guilt eat at her.

"Cronis can't have been the only one to feel that way. Are there others who think that I've taken something from them?"

"Most likely," he said, honest as always. She accepted his words, closed her eyes, and sighed.

"The only thing I can do is move forward, isn't it?"

"Hn."

She leaned backward and he was there, solid and warm. She sighed again, this time in relief. Whatever they faced in the future, she was assured he would not be far. "Stay near me?"

"…Hn."

* * *

Author Note: I know it ends abruptly, but honestly I've had about 9/10ths of this chapter written for the past year and unfortunately I'm having trouble writing anything further. So, I capped the scene and this is the product. I hope everyone enjoyed IYE, but it will stay this way for the forseeable future. Thank you to everyone who followed me all the way through!

-Sar


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